
Qass. 
Book 






Qg 



CONSTITUTION OF MAN 



CONSIDERED IN 



RELATION TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 



GEORGE COMBE 



Vain is the ridicule with which one sees some persons will divert 
themselves, upon finding lesser pains considered as instances of divine 
punishment. There is no possibility of answering or evading the gen- 
eral thing here intended, without denying all final causes. — Butler's 
Analogy. >; " 



SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. 



fr*£ 



— ;WtN'S 



TONWg 
ALLEN AND TICKNOR. 




• 









R. BUTTS. SCHOOL STREET. 



>£^ £6 'J I 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



The author of the following work is known in this 
country by his Essays on Phrenology. Few men in 
Great Britain have discovered more sincere devotion 
to this subject itself, or more zeal in communicating 
it to others, than Mr Combe. He shows everywhere 
in what he has written on phrenology a full conviction 
that his favorite science is founded in nature ; that it 
will aid the study and progress of intellectual philoso- 
phy ; that for want of its aids this philosophy has hith- 
erto necesssrily been imperfect ; that, in short, phre- 
nology is susceptible of a wide and useful application, 
and is destined to exert an important influence over 
the whole circle of human interests. 

The following essay on the Constitution of Man is 
founded on phrenology ; at least, the phrenological 
classification of the human faculties is adopted by the 
writer as the basis of his observations. This can 
hardly be objected to. To those who have studied 
phrenology it will be a recommendation ; and to those 
who know it only by name, sufficient is brought into 
view in the volume to give them a general notion of a sci- 



a 



iv PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

ence which has engaged many able minds, and which 
in its measure belongs to the intellectual labors of the 
age. Mr Combe does not appear to use it, in order to 
make converts to the phrenological faith ; but rather 
brings it in to promote the great object of his present 
publication. This object is human happiness in an 
extended use of the term. He says, in amount, to 
lessen misery and increase happiness is his great pur- 
pose, and to accomplish this, his labor has been to dis- 
cover as many of the contrivances of the Creator, for 
effecting beneficial purposes as possible ; and second- 
ly, to point out in what manner by accommodating our 
conduct to these contrivances we may attain one great 
end of our being. 

In prosecution of this design, Mr Combe's first in- 
quiries are directed to the external world. He regards 
things first, as they are ; and secondly, the purposes of 
their creation. These inquiries involve many very 
interesting views relating to the world without us ; 
the actual condition of things ; their mutual influences, 
whether remote or near ; whether contingent or neces- 
sary. The circumstances under which phenomena 
take place, or with the author, the established and con- 
stant modes or processes according to which phenom- 
ena are produced, are laws, rules of action ; and the 
first part of his work treats of natural laws. In the 
second chapter, Mr Combe treats of the constitution of 
man, and its relations to external things. In the first 
place man is regarded as & physical being, composed 
of physical elements, and to a certain extent, and 
under like circumstances, exhibiting like phenomena 
with the objects of the external material world. In the 
next place he is viewed as an organized being, and the 



PREFACE TOTHE AMERICAN EDITION. v 

laws of his organization, together with the correspon- 
dences and differences between these and the natural 
laws are pointed out. The moral and intellectual 
constitution of man are treated under precisely simi- 
lar aspects. The whole subject is developed with 
great skill, and made clear and interesting by a great 
variety of very happy illustrations. 

The main design of this work is never lost sight of. 
This is to make men happier and better, — to show 
how the human race may be as happy as the constitu- 
tion of man actually fits it to be. *To do this, the au- 
thor assumes that this constitution was designed to 
harmonize perfectly with itself in' all its parts; and 
also with the whole creation so far as it is capable of 
being brought into relations with it. In the next 
place he labors to show that in order to the accomplish- 
ment of this design, sufficiently varied and active pow- 
ers have been committed to man, and if he fail of the 
happiness for which he was designed here, it is not be- 
cause he wants capacity of felicity, but because he 
has misused the powers with which he has been bless- 
ed. /Human happiness then consists in an exact ac- 
cordance of all the laws which are in operation within 
us, and again of these with all the laws which govern 
the external world. Human misery is the direct and 
necessary consequence of an infringement of these 
laws, or of some of them. > The same skill is shown in 
treating this part of the work which has been noticed 
as characterising the other. The same felicity of il- 
lustration is everywhere discoverable. The earnest 
ness of truth is the prevailing characteristic, and a 
truly benevolent purpose marks every page. 

Mr Combe's work should be placed with those, of 



vi PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

which so many within a few years have appeared, 
which are devoted to the all-absorbing topic of Educa- 
tion. It treats of moral, intellectual, and physical ed- 
ucation. This is not formally done under so many 
distinct heads. But the whole course of reasoning of 
the author, and the whole array of all his illustrations, 
have it always obviously in view to show how the 
highest cultivation of each of these may be most sure- 
ly brought about. 

The publishers have printed this edition from a be- 
lief that there is much in the work to interest the com- 
munity. It has novelty to reward the general inquirer, 
and it presents the well known under novel aspects. 
There is one class amongst us who may study it with 
much advantage. Scholars are referred to, a class 
here too small to form a distinct order with habits of 
their own, and who insensibly fall into those which al- 
though not mischievous to the multitude on the score 
of health, too often make ill health the portion of the 
sedentary student, and bring upon him premature de- 
cay. To all classes it is recommended, and the vari- 
ous learning, and acuteness of the author well fit him 
to write a book which addresses its instructions to the 
whole community. 



PREFACE. 



This Essay would not have been presented to the 
public, had I not believed that it contains views of 
the constitution, condition, and prospects of Man, 
which deserve attention ; but these, I trust, are not 
ushered forth with anything approaching to a presump- 
tuous spirit. I lay no claim to originality of concep- 
tion. My first notions of the natural laws were 
derived from an unpublished manuscript of Dr Spurz- 
heim, with the perusal of which I was honored some 
years ago ; and all my inquiries and meditations since 
have impressed me more and more with a conviction 
of their importance. The materials employed lie 
open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say 
that a new truth has been presented in the following 
work. The parts have all been admitted and employ- 
ed again and again, by writers on morals, from Socra- 
tes down to the present day. In this respect, there 
is nothing new under the sun. The only novelty in 



x PREFACE. 

duced highly interesting and instructive works on 
Moral Science ; and the present Essay is an humble at- 
tempt to pursue the same plan, with the aid of the new 
lights afforded by phrenology. 

Edinburgh, 9th June, 1828. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON NATURAL LAWS, 13 

CHAPTER II. 

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELA- 
TIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS, . . . 33 

Sect. I. Man considered as a Physical Being, . 35 
II. Man considered as an Organized Being, . 38 

III. Man considered as an Animal — Moral — and 

Intellectual Being, 44 

IV. The Faculties of Man compared with each 

other ; or the supremacy of the Moral Sen- 
timents and Intellect, .... 49 
V. The Faculties of man compared with Exter- 
nal Objects, 73 

VI. On the sources of Human Happiness, and 

the conditions requisite for maintaining it, 81 

VII. Application of the Natural Laws to the prac- 

tical arrangements of Life, . . .,98 

CHAPTER III. 

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MAN- 
KIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE 
LAW3 OF NATURE, 107 



Xii CONTENTS. 

Sect. I. Calamities arising from infringements of the 

Physical Laws, . .... 107 

II. On the Evils that befall Mankind, from in- 
fringement of the Organic Laws, . 114 

III. Calamities arising from infringement of the 

Moral law, 201 

IV. Moral advantages of Punishment, . . 250 

CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL 

LAWS, 256 

CONCLUSION, ~. 277 



APPENDIX. 

Note I. Natural Laws, [Text, p. 13.] . . .291 
II. Organic Laws, [Text, p. 111.] . . 298 

III. Death, Decreasing Mortality, [Text, p. 184.] 302 

IV. Moral Law, [Text, p. 226.] ... 307 



ESSAY 

ON THE 

CONSTITUTION OF MAN, 

AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS 



CHAPTER I. 

ON NATURAL LAWS. 

A statement of the evidence of a great intelli- 
gent First Cause is given in the ' Phrenological 
Journal,' and in the * System of Phrenology.' I 
hold this existence as capable of demonstration. 
By Nature, I mean the workmanship of this great 
Being, such as it is revealed to our minds by our 
senses and faculties. 

In natural science, three subjects of inquiry 
may be distinguished. 1st. What exists? 2dly. 
What is the purpose or design of what exists ; and, 
3dly. Why was what exists designed for such uses 
as it evidently subserves ? For example, — It 
is matter of fact that arctic regions and torrid 
zones exist, — that a certain kind of moss is most 
abundant in Lapland in mid-winter, — that the 
rein-deer feeds on it, and enjoys high health and 
vigor in situations where most other animals would 
1 



14 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

die : further, it is matter of fact that camels exist 
in Africa, — that they have broad hooves, and 
stomachs fitted to retain water for a length of time, 
and that they flourish amid arid tracts of sand, 
where the rein-deer would not live for a day. All 
this falls under the inquiry, What exists ? But in 
contemplating the foregoing facts, it is impossible 
not to infer that one object of the Lapland moss 
is to feed the rein-deer, and one purpose of the 
deer is to assist man : and that, in like manner, 
broad feet have been given to the camel to enable 
it to walk on sand, and a retentive stomach to fit 
it for arid places in which water is not found ex- 
cept at wide intervals. These are inquiries into 
the use or purpose of what exists. In like manner, 
we may inquire, What purpose do sandy deserts 
and desolate heaths subserve in the economy of 
nature ? In short, an inquiry into the use or pur- 
pose of any object that exists, is merely an exami- 
nation of its relations to other objects and beings, 
and of the modes in which it affects them ; and this 
is quite a legitimate exercise of the human intel- 
lect. But, 3dly, we may ask, why were the phy- 
sical elements of nature created such as they are 1 
Why were summer, autumn, spring, and winter in- 
troduced ? Why were animals formed of organ- 
ized matter 1 These are inquiries why what exists 
was made such as it is, or into the will of the Deity 
in creation. Now, man's perceptive faculties are 
adequate to the first inquiry, and his reflective 
faculties to the second ; but it may well be doubted 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 15 

whether he has powers suited to the third. My in- 
vestigations are confined to the first and second, 
and I do not discuss the third. 

A laic, in the common acceptation, denotes a 
rule of action ; its existence indicates an establish- 
ed and constant mode, or process, according to 
which phenomena take place ; and this is the sense 
in which I shall use it, when treating of physical 
substances and beings. For example, water and 
heat are substances ; and water presents different 
appearances, and manifests certain qualities, ac- 
cording to the altitude of its situation, and the de- 
gree of heat with which it is combined. When 
at the level of the sea, and combined with that 
portion of heat indicated by 32° of Fahrenheit's 
thermometer, it freezes or becomes solid ; when 
combined with the portion denoted by 212° of that 
instrument, it rises into vapor or steam. Here, 
water and heat are the substances, — the freezing 
and rising in vapor are the appearances or phenome- 
na presented by them ; and when we say that these 
take place according to a Law of Nature, we mean 
only that these modes of action appear, to our in- 
tellects, to be established in the very constitution 
of the water and heat, and in their natural relation- 
ship to each other ; and that the processes of freez- 
ing and rising in vapor are their constant appear- 
ances, when combined in these proportions, other 
conditions being the same. 

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st. 
That all substances and beings have received a 



16 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

definite natural constitution ; 2dly. That every 
mode of action, which is said. to take place accord- 
ing to a natural law, is inherent in the constitution 
of the substance, or being, that acts; and, 3dly. 
That the mode of action described is universal and 
invariable, wherever and whenever the substances, 
or beings, are found in the same condition. For 
example, water, at the level of the sea, freezes and 
boils, at the same temperature, in China and in 
France, in Peru and in England ; and there is no 
exception to the regularity with which it exhibits 
these appearances, when all its conditions are the 
same : For cceteris paribus is a condition which 
pervades all departments of science, phrenology in- 
cluded. If water be carried to the top of a moun- 
tain 20,000 feet high, it boils at a lower tempera- 
ture than 212°, but this again depends on its rela- 
tionship to the air, and takes place also according 
to fixed and invariable principles. The air exerts 
a great pressure on the water. At the level of the 
sea the pressure is nearly the same in all quarters 
of the globe, and in that situation the freezing 
points and boiling points correspond all over the 
world; but on the top of a high mountain the 
pressure is much less, and the vapor not being 
held down by so great a power of resistance, rises 
at a lower degree of heat than 212°. But this 
change of appearances does not indicate a change 
in the constitution of the water and the heat, but 
only a variation of the circumstances in which they 
are placed ; and hence it is not correct to say, that 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 17 

water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a 
lower temperature than 212°, is an exception to 
the general law of nature : there never are excep- 
tions to the laws of nature ; for the Creator is too 
wise and too powerful to make imperfect or incon- 
sistent arrangements. The error is in the human 
mind inferring the law to be, that water boils at 
212° in all altitudes ; when the real law is only 
that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the 
sea, in all countries ; and that it boils at a lower 
temperature, the higher it is carried, because there 
the pressure of the atmosphere is diminished. 

Intelligent beings exist, and are capable of mod- 
ifying their actions. By means of their faculties, 
the laws impressed by the Creator on physical sub- 
stances become known to them ; and, when per- 
ceived, constitute laws to them, by which to regu- 
late their conduct. For example, it is a physical 
law, that boiling water destroys the muscular and 
nervous systems of man. This is the result purely 
of the constitution of the body, and the relation be- 
tween it and heat ; and man cannot alter or sus- 
pend that law. But whenever the human intellect 
perceives the relation, and the consequences of 
violating it, the mind is prompted to avoid infringe- 
ment, in order to shun the torture attached by the 
Creator to the decomposition of the human body by 
heat. 

Similar views have long been taught by philoso- 
phers and divines. Bishop Butler, in particular, 
says : — ' An Author of Nature being supposed, it 



18 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

is not so much a deduction of reason as a matter 
of experience, that we are thus under his govern- 
ment, in the same sense as we are under the gov- 
ernment of civil magistrates. Because the annex- 
ing pleasure to some actions, and pain to others, in 
our power to do or forbear, and giving notice of 
this appointment beforehand to those whom it 
concerns, is the proper formal notion of govern- 
ment. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus 
follows upon our behaviour, be owing to the Au- 
thor of Nature's acting upon us every moment 
which we feel it, or to his having at once contriv- 
ed and executed his own part in the plan of the 
world, makes no alteration as to the matter before 
us. For, if civil magistrates could make the sanc- 
tions of their laws take place, without interposing 
at all, after they had passed them, without a trial, 
and the formalities of an execution ; if they were 
able to make their laws execute themselves, or 
every offender ,to execute them upon himself, we 
should be just in the same sense under their gov- 
ernment then as we are now ; but in a much high- 
er degree and more perfect manner. Vain is the 
ridicule icith which one sees some persons toill di- 
vert themselves, upon finding lesser pains coxV- 
sidered as instances of divine punishment. 
There is no possibility of answering or evad- 
ing the general thing here intended, without de- 
nying all final causes. For, final causes being 
admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned 
must be admitted too, as instances of them. And 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 19 

if they are, if God annexes delight to some actions, 
with an apparent design to induce us to act so and 
so, then he not only dispenses happiness and mise- 
ry, but also rewards and punishes actions. If, for 
example, the pain which ivefcel upon doing what 
tench to the destruction of our bodies, suppose up- 
on too near approaches to fire, or upon wounding 
ourselves, be appointed by the Author of Nature 
to prevent our doing what thus tends to our de- 
struction ; this is altogether as much an instance 
of his punishing our actions, and consequently 
of our being under his government, as declaring, 
by a voice from Heaven, that, if we acted so, he 
would inflict such pain upon us, and inflict it 
whether it be greater or less.' * 

If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the 
creator ; that Nature, in the general sense, means 
the world which He has made ; and, in a more li- 
mited sense, the particular constitution which he 
has bestowed on any special object, of which we 
may be treating, and that a Law of Nature means 
the established mode in which that constitution 
acts, and the obligation thereby imposed on intelli- 
gent beings to attend to it, he irilJ be in no dan- 
ger of misunderstanding my meaning. 

Every natural object has received a definite con- 
stitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular 
way. There must, therefore, be as many natural 

* Butler's Works, vol. i. p. 44. Similar observations 
by other authors will be found in the Appendix, No 1. 



20 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

laws, as there are distinct modes of action of sub- 
stances and beings, viewed by themselves. But 
substances and beings stand in certain relations 
to each other, and modify each other's action in 
an established and definite manner, according to 
that relationship ; altitude, for instance, modifies 
the effect of heat upon water. There must, there- 
fore, be also as many laws of nature, as there are 
relations between different substances and beings. 

It is impossible, in the present state of know- 
ledge, to elucidate all these laws : countless years 
may elapse before they shall be discovered ; but we 
may investigate some of the most familiar and strik- 
ing of them. Those that most readily present 
themselves bear reference to the great classes into 
which the objects around us may be divided, 
namely, Physical, Organic, and Intelligent. I 
shall therefore confine myself to the physical laws, 
the organic laws, and the laws which characterise 
intelligent beings. 

1st. The Physical Laws embrace all the pheno- 
mena of mere matter ; a heavy body, for instance, 
when unsupported, falls to the ground with a cer- 
tain accelerating, force, in proportion to the dis- 
tance which it falls, and its own density ; and this 
motion is said to take place according to the law 
of gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable 
blue color, converts it into red, and this is said to 
take place according to a chemical law. 

2dly. Organised substances and beings stand 
higher in the scale of creation, and have proper- 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 21 

ties peculiar to themselves. They act, and are 
acted upon, in conformity with their constitution, 
and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar 
set of laws, termed the Organic. The distinguish- 
ing characteristic of this class of objects, is, that 
the individuals of them derive their existence from 
other organised beings, are nourished by food, and 
go through a regular process of growth and decay- 
Vegetables and Animals are the two great subdi- 
visions of it. The organic laws are different from 
the merely physical. A stone, for example, does 
not spring from a parent stone ; it does not take 
food from its parent, the earth, or air ; it does not 
increase in vigor for a time, and then decay and 
suffer dissolution, all which processes characterise 
vegetables and animals. The organic laws are 
superior to the merely physical. For example, a 
living man, or animal, may be placed in an oven, 
along with the carcass of a dead animal, and re- 
main exposed to a heat, which will completely 
bake the dead flesh, and yet come out alive, and 
not seriously injured. The dead flesh is mere 
physical matter, and its decomposition by the heat 
instantly commences ; but the living animal is able, 
by its organic qualities, to counteract and resist to 
a certain extent, that influence. The expression 
Organic Laws, therefore, indicates that every phe- 
nomenon connected with the production, health, 
growth, decay, and death of vegetables and 
animals, takes place with undeviating regu- 
larity, whenever circumstances are the same. 



22 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

Animals are the chief objects of my present ob- 
servations. 

3dly. Intelligent beings stand still higher in the 
scale than merely organised matter, and embrace 
all animals that have distinct consciousness, from 
the lowest of the inferior creatures up to man. 
The great divisions of this class are into Intelli- 
gent and Animal — and into Intelligent and Moral 
creatures. The dog, horse, and elephant, for in- 
stance, belong to the first class, because they pos- 
sess some degree of intelligence, and certain ani- 
mal propensities, but no moral feelings ; man be- 
longs to the second, because he possesses all the 
three. These various faculties have received a 
definite constitution from the Creator, and stand 
in determinate relationship to external objects : for 
example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood 
sweet, nor sugar bitter : a healthy eye cannot see 
a rod partly plunged in water straight, because 
the water so modifies the rays of light, as to give 
to the stick the appearance of being crooked ; a 
healthy Benevolence cannot feel gratified with 
murder, nor a healthy Conscientiousness with 
fraud. As, therefore, the mental faculties have 
received a precise constitution, have been placed 
in fixed and definite relations to external objects, 
and act regularly, we speak of their acting accord- 
ing to rules or laws, and call these the Moral and 
Intellectual Laws. 

In short, the expression* laws of nature,' when 
properly used, signifies the rules of action impress- 
ed on objects and beings by their natural consti- 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 23 

tution. Thus, when we say, that by the physical 
law, a ship sinks when a plank starts from her side, 
we mean, that, by the constitution of the ship, and 
the water, and the relation subsisting between 
them, the ship sinks when the plank starts. 

Several important principles strike us very early 
in attending to the natural laws, viz. 1st. Their in- 
dependence of each other ; 2dly. Obedience to each 
of them is attended with its own reward, and dis- 
obedience with its own punishment ; 3dly. They are 
universal, unbending, and invariable in their ope- 
ration ; 4thly. They are in harmony with the con- 
stitution of man. 

1. The independence of the natural laws may 
be illustrated thus ; — A ship floats because a part 
of it being immersed, displaces a weight of water 
equal to its whole weight, leaving the remaining 
part above the fluid. A ship, therefore, will float 
on the surface of the water as long as these physi- 
cal conditions are observed ; no matter although 
the men in it should infringe other natural laws ; 
as, for example, although they should rob, mur- 
der, blaspheme, and commit every species of de- 
bauchery ; and it will sink whenever the physical 
conditions are subverted, however strictly the crew 
and passengers may obey the other laws here ad- 
verted to. In like manner, a man who swallows 
poison, which destroys the stomach or intestines, 
will die, just because an organic law has been 
infringed, and because it is independent of others, 
although the man should have taken the drug by 



24 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

mistake, or been the most pious and charitable in- 
dividual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, 
lie, steal, tyrannise, and in short break a great va- 
riety of the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and 
rubicund, if he sedulously observed the organic laws 
of temperance and exercise, which determine the 
condition of the body ; while, on the other hand, 
an individual who neglects these, may pine in dis- 
ease, and be racked with torturing pains, although 
at the very moment, he may be devoting his mind 
to the highest duties of humanity. 

2. Obedience to each law is attended with its 
own reward, and disobedience with its own pun- 
ishment. Thus the mariners who preserve their 
ship in accordance with the physical laws, reap the 
reward of sailing in safety ; and those who permit 
its departure from them, are punished by the ship 
sinking. Those who obey the moral law, enjoy the 
intense internal delights that spring from active mo- 
ral faculties ; they render themselves, moreover, ob- 
jects of affection and esteem to moral and intelli- 
gent beings, who, in consequence, confer on them 
many other gratifications. Those who disobey that 
law, are tormented with insatiable desires, which, 
from the nature of things, cannot be gratified; they 
are punished by the perpetual craving of whatever 
portion of moral sentiment they possess, for higher 
enjoyments, which are never attained ; and they 
are objects of dislike and malevolence to other 
beings in the same condition as themselves, who 
inflict on them the evils dictated by their own 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 25 

provoked propensities. Those who obey the or- 
ganic laws, reap the reward of health and vigor 
of body, and buoyancy of mind ; those who break 
them are punished by sickness, feebleness, and 
languor. 

3. The natural laws are universal, invariable, 
and unbending. When the physical laws are sub- 
verted in China or Kamschatka, there is no in- 
stance of a ship floating there more than in En- 
gland ; and, when they are observed, there is no 
instance of a vessel sinking in any one of these coun- 
tries more than in another. There is no example 
of men, in any country, enjoying the mild and gen- 
erous internal joys, and the outward esteem and 
love that attend obedience to the moral law, while 
they give themselves up to the dominion of brutal 
propensities. There is no example, in any latitude 
or longitude, or in any age, of men who entered 
life with a constitution in perfect harmony with 
the organic laws, and who continued to obey these 
laws throughout, being, in consequence of this 
obedience, visited with pain and disease ; and there 
are no instances of men who were born with con- 
stitutions at variance with the organic laws, and 
who lived in habitual disobedience to them, enjoy- 
ing that sound health and vigor of body, that are 
the rewards of obedience. 

4. The natural laws are in harmony with the 
whole constitution of man, the moral and intellec- 
tual powers being supreme. For example, if ships 
had sunk when they were in accordance with the 



26 0N NATURAL LAWS. 

physical law, this would have outraged the percep- 
tions of Causality, and offended Benevolence and 
Justice ; but as they float, the physical is, in this 
instance, in harmony with the moral and intellec- 
tual law. If men who rioted in drunkenness and 
debauchery, had thereby established health and 
increased their happiness, this, again, would have 
been in discord with our intellectual and moral 
perceptions; but the opposite result is in harmony 
with them. 

It will be subsequently shown, that our moral 
sentiments desire universal happiness. If the phy- 
sical and organic laws are constituted in harmony 
with them, it ought to follow that the natural laws, 
when obeyed conduce to the happiness of moral 
and intelligent beings, who are called onto observe 
them ; and that the evil consequences or punish- 
ments resulting from disobedience, are calculated 
to enforce stricter attention and obedience to the 
laws, that these beings may escape from the mis- 
eries of infringement, and return to the advantages 
of observance. For example, according to this 
view, when a ship sinks, in consequence of a plank 
starting, the punishment ought to impress upon the 
spectators the absolute necessity of having every 
plank secure and strong, before going to sea again, 
a condition indispensable to their safety. When 
sickness and pain follow a debauch, they serve to 
urge a more scrupulous obedience to the organic 
laws, that the individual may escape death, which 
is the inevitable consequence of too great and con- 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 27 

tinued disobedience to these laws, and enjoy health, 
which is the reward of opposite conduct. When 
discontent, irritation, hatred, and other mental an- 
noyances, arise out of infringement of the moral 
law, this punishment is calculated to induce the 
offender to return to obedience, that he may en- 
joy the rewards attached to it. 

When the transgression of any natural law is 
excessive, and so great that return to obedience is 
impossible, one purpose of death, which then en- 
sues, may be to deliver the individual from a con- 
tinuation of the punishment which could then do 
him no good. Thus, when, from infringement 
of a physical law, a ship sinks at sea, and leaves 
men immersed in water, without the possibility of 
reaching land, their continued existence in that 
state would be one of cruel and protracted suffer- 
ing ; and it is advantageous to them to have their 
mortal life extinguished at once by drowning, 
thereby withdrawing them from further agony. In 
like manner, if a man in the vigor of life, so far 
infringe any organic law as to destroy the function 
of a vital organ, the heart, for instance, or the 
lungs, or the bra'in, it is better for him to have his 
life cut short, and his pain put an end to, than to 
have it protracted under all the tortures of an or- 
ganic existence without lungs, without a heart, 
or without a brain, if such a state were possible, 
which, for this wise reason, it is not. 

I do not intend to predicate anything concern- 
ing the perfectibility of man by obedience to the 



28 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

laws of nature. The system of sublunary crea- 
tion, so far as we perceive it, does not appear to 
be one of optimism ; yet benevolent design, in its 
constitution, is undeniable. Paley says, ' Nothing 
remains but the first supposition, that God, when 
he created the human species, wished them hap- 
piness, and made for them the provisions which he 
has made, with that view and for that purpose. 
The same argument may be proposed in different 
terms : Contrivance proves design ; and the predom- 
inant tendency of the contrivance indicates the 
disposition of the designer. The world abounds 
with contrivances; and ALL THE CONTRIVAN- 
CES which we, are acquainted with, are directed to 
beneficial purposes' — Paley's Mor. Phil. Edinb, 
1816, p. 51. My object is to discover as many 
of the contrivances of the Creator, for effecting 
beneficial purposes, as possible ; and to point out 
in what manner, by accommodating our conduct 
to these contrivances, we may lessen our misery 
and increase our happiness. 

I do not intend to teach that the natural laws, 
discernible by unassisted reason, are sufficient for 
the salvation of man without revelation. Human 
interests regard this world and the next. To en- 
joy this world, 1 humbly maintain, that man must 
discover and obey the natural laws ; for example, 
to ensure health to offspring, the parents must be 
healthy, and the children after birth must be treat- 
ed in conformity to the organic laws ; to fit them 
*or usefulness in society, they must be instructed 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 29 

in their own constitution, — in that of external ob- 
jects and beings, and taught to act rationally in re- 
ference to these. Revelation does not communi- 
cate complete or scientific information concerning 
the best mode of pursuing even our legitimate 
temporal interests, probably because faculties have 
been given to man to discover arts, sciences, 
and the natural laws, and to adapt his conduct to 
them. The physical, moral, and intellectual na- 
ture of man, is itself open to investigation by our 
natural faculties ; and numerous practical duties 
resulting from our constitution are discoverable, 
which are not treated of in detail in the inspired 
volume ; the mode of preserving health, for exam- 
ple ; of pursuing with success a temporal calling ; 
of discovering the qualities of men with whom we 
mean to assooiate our interests ; and many others. 
My object, I repeat, is to investigate the natural 
constitution of the human body and mind, their 
relations to external objects and beings in this 
world, and the courses of action that, in conse- 
quence, appear to be beneficial or hurtful. 

Man's spiritual interests belong to the sphere of 
revelation ; and I distinctly declare, that I do not 
teach, that obedience to the natural laws is suffi- 
cient for salvation in a future state. Revelation 
prescribes certain requisites for salvation, which 
may be divided into two classes; first, faith or 
belief: and, secondly, the performance of certain 
practical duties, not as meritorious of salvation, 
but as the native result of that faith, and the ne- 
2 



30 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

cessary evidence of its sincerity. The natural 
laws form no guide as to faith ; but so far as I can 
perceive, their dictates and those of revelation 
coincide in all matters relating to practical duties 
in temporal affairs. 

It may be asked, whether mere knowledge of 
the natural laws is sufficient to insure observance 
of them ? Certainly not. Mere knowledge of mu- 
sic does not enable one to play on an instrument, 
nor of anatomy to perform skilfully a surgical op- 
eration. Practical training, and the aid of every 
motive that can interest the feelings, are necessa- 
ry to lead individuals to obey the natural laws. 
Religion, in particular, may furnish motives high- 
ly conducive to this obedience. But, it must nev- 
er be forgotten, that although mere knowledge is 
not all-sufficient, it is a primary and indispensable 
requisite to regular observance ; and that it is as 
impossible, effectually and systematically to obey 
the natural laws without knowing them, as it is to 
infringe them with impunity, although from igno- 
rance of their existence. Some persons are of 
opinion that Christianity alone suffices, not only 
for man's salvation, which I do not dispute, but 
for his guidance in all practical virtues, without 
knowledge of, or obedience to, the laws of nature ; 
but from this notion I respectfully dissent. It ap- 
pears to me, that one reason why vice and misery, 
in this world, do not diminish in proportion to 
preaching, is, because the natural laws are too 
much overlooked, and very rarely considered as 
having any relation to practical conduct. 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 3l 

Connected with this subject, it is proper to state, 
that I do not maintain that the world is arranged 
on the principle of Benevolence exclusively : my 
idea is, that it is constituted in harmony with the 
whole faculties of man ; the moral sentiments and 
intellect holding the supremacy. What is meant 
by creation being constituted in harmony with the 
whole faculties of man, is this. Suppose that we 
should see two men holding a third in a chair, and 
a fourth drawing a tooth from his head : — While 
we contemplated this bare act, and knew nothing 
of the intention with which it was done, and of 
the consequences that would follow, we would set 
it down as purely cruel ; and say, that, although 
it might be in harmony with Destructiveness, it 
could not be so with Benevolence. But, when we 
were told that the individual in the chair was a 
patient, the operator a dentist, the two men his 
assistants, and that the object of all the parties 
was to deliver the first from violent torture, we 
would then perceive that Destructiveness had been 
used as a means to accomplish a benevolent pur- 
pose ; or, in other words, that it had acted under 
the supremacy of moral sentiment and intellect, 
and we would approve of the transaction. If the 
world were created on the principle of Benevo- 
lence exclusively, no doubt the toothache could 
not exist ; but, as pain does exist, Destructiveness 
has been given to place man in harmony with it, 
when used for a benevolent end. 

To apply this illustration to the works of prov- 



32 ON NATURAL LA WS. 

idence ; I humbly suggest it as probable, that if 
we knew thoroughly the design and whole conse- 
quences of such institutions of the Creator, as are 
attended with pain, death, and disease, for exam- 
ple, we should find that Destructiveness was used 
as a means, under the guidance of Benevolence 
and Justice, to arrive at an end in harmony with 
the moral sentiments and intellect ; in short, that 
no institution of the Creator has pure evil, or de- 
structiveness alone, for its object. In judging of 
the divine institutions, the moral sentiments and 
intellect embrace the results of them to the race, 
while the propensities regard only the individual ; 
and as the former are the higher powers, their dic- 
tates are of supreme authority in such questions. 
Further, when the operations of these institutions 
are sufficiently understood, they will be acknowl- 
edged to be beneficial for the individual also ; 
although, when partially viewed, this may not at 
first appear to be the case. 

The opposite of this doctrine, viz. that there 
are institutions of the Crealor which have suffer- 
ing for their exclusive object, is clearly untena- 
ble ; for this would be ascribing malevolence to 
the Deity. As, however, the existence of pain is 
undeniable, it is equally impossible to believe that 
the world is arranged on the principle of Benevo- 
lence exclusively ; and, with great submission, the 
view now presented reconciles the existence of 
Pain with that of Benevolence in a natural way, 
and the harmony of it with the constitution of the 
human mind, renders its soundness probable. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MAX, AM) ITS RELATIONS 
TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

Let us, then, consider the Constitution of Man, 
and the natural laws to which he is subjected, and 
endeavor to discover how far the external world 
is arranged with wisdom and benevolence, in re- 
gard to him. Bishop Butler, in the Preface to 
his Sermons, says, ■ It is from considering the re- 
lations which the several appetites and passions 
in the inward frame have to each other, and, 
above all, the SUPREMACY of reflection or con- 
science, that we get the idea of the system or con- 
stitution of human nature. And from the idea 
itself, it will as fully appear, that this our nature, 
I. i. constitution, is adapted to virtue, as from the 
idea of a watch it appears, that its nature, i. r. 
constitution or system, is adapted to measure 
time. 

' Mankind has various instincts and principles 
of action, as brute creatures have ; some leading 
most directly and immediately to the good of the 
community, and some most directly to private 
good. 



34 CONSTITUTION OF MAN, 

1 Man has several, which brutes have not ; par- 
ticularly reflection or conscience, an approbation 
of some principles or actions, and disapprobation 
of others.' 

'Brutes obey their instincts or principles of 
action, according to certain rules ; suppose, the 
constitution of their body, and the objects around 
them.' 

f The generality of mankind also obey their in- 
stincts and principles, all of them, those propensi- 
ties we call good, as well as the bad. according to 
the same rules, namely, the constitution of their 
body, and the external circumstances which they 
are in.' 

' Brutes, in acting according to the rules before 
mentioned, their bodily constitution and circum- 
stances, act suitably to their whole nature. 

'Mankind also, in acting thus, would act suit- 
ably to their whole nature, if no more were to be 
said of man's nature than what has been now said ; 
if that, as it is a true, were also a complete, ade- 
quate account of our nature. 

' But that is not a complete account of man's 
nature. Somewhat further must be brought in 
to give us an adequate notion of it ; namely, that 
one of those principles of action, conscience, or 
reflection, compared with the rest, as they all stand 
together in the nature of man, plainly bears upon 
it marks of authority over all the rest, and claims 
the absolute direction of them all, to allow or forbid 
their gratification ; — a disapprobation on reflection 



AND ITS RELATIONS. 35 

being in itself a principle manifestly superior to a 
mere propension. And the conclusion is, that to 
allow no more to this superior principle or part of 
our nature, than to other parts ; to let it govern 
and guide only occasionally, in common with the 
rest, as its turn happens to come, from the temper 
and circumstances one happens to be in ; this is 
not to act conformably to the constitution of man : 
neither can any human creature be said to act con- 
formably to his constitution of nature, unless he al- 
lows to that superior principle the absolute authori- 
ty which is due to it.' — Butler's Works, vol. ii. 
Preface. The following Essay is founded on the 
principles here suggested. 

SECT. I. MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING. 

The human body consists of bones, muscles, 
nerves, blood-vessels, besides organs of nutrition, 
of respiration, and of thought. These parts are 
all composed of physical elements, and, to a certain 
extent, are subjected to the physical laws of crea- 
tion. By the law of gravitation, the body falls to 
the ground when unsupported, and is liable to be 
injured, like any frangible substance ; by a chemi- 
cal law, excessive cold freezes, and excessive heat 
dissipates its fluids; and life, in either case, is ex- 
tinguished. 

To discover the real effect of the physical laws 
of nature on human happiness, we would require 
to understand, 1st. The physical laws themselves, 



36 MAN CONSIDERED AS 

as revealed by mathematics, natural philosophy, 
natural history, and their subordinate branches ; 
2dly. The anatomical and physiological constitu- 
tion of the human body ; 3&ly. The adaptation of 
the former to the latter. These expositions are 
necessary, to ascertain the extent to which it is 
possible for man to place himself in accordance 
with the physical laws, so as to reap advantage 
from them, and also to determine how far the suf- 
ferings which he endures, fail to be ascribed to 
their inevitable operation, and how far to his igno- 
rance and infringement of them. To treat of these 
views in detail, would require separate volumes, 
and I therefore confine myself to a single instance 
as an illustration of the mode in which the investi- 
gation might be conducted. 

By the law of gravitation, heavy bodies always 
tend towards the centre of the earth. Some of 
the advantages of this law are, that objects remain 
at rest when properly supported, so that men know 
where to find them when they are wanted for use ; 
walls, when erected of sufficient thickness and 
perfectly perpendicular, stand firm and secure, so 
as to constitute edifices for the accommodation of 
man. Water descends from the clouds, from the 
roofs of houses, from streets and fields, and pre- 
cipitates itself down the channels of rivers, turns 
mill-wheels in its course, and sets in motion the 
most stupendous and useful machinery ; ships move 
steadily through the water with part of their hulls 
immersed, and part rising moderately above it, 



A PHYSICAL BEING. 37 

their masts and sails towering in the air to catch 
the inconstant breeze; and men are enabled to 
descend from heights, to penetrate by mines be- 
low the surface of the ground, and by diving-bells 
beneath that of the ocean. 

(To place man in harmony with this law, the 
Creator has bestowed on him bones, muscles, and 
nerves, constructed on the most perfect principles 
of mechanical science, which enable him to pre- 
serve his equilibrium, and to adapt his movements 
to its influence ; also intellectual faculties, calcu- 
lated to perceive the existence of the law, its 
modes of operation, the relation between it and 
himself, the beneficial consequences of observing 
this relation, and the painful results of infringing it. 

Finally, when a person falls over a precipice, 
and is maimed or killed ; when a ship springs a 
leak and sinks ; or when a reservoir pond breaks 
down its banks and ravages a valley, we ought to 
trace the evil back to its cause, which will uni- 
formly resolve itself into infringement of a natural 
law, and then endeavor to discover whether this 
infringement could or could not have been pre- 
vented, by a due exercise of the physical and 
mental powers bestowed by the Creator on man.! 

By pursuing this course, we shall arrive at 
sound conclusions concerning the adaptation of 
the human mind and body to the physical laws of 
creation. The subject, as I have said, is too ex- 
tensive to be here prosecuted in detail, and I am 
incompetent, besides, to do it justice ; but the 



38 MAN CONSIDERED AS 

more minutely any one inquires, the more firm will 
be his conviction, that in these relations admira- 
ble provision is made by the Creator for human 
happiness, and that the evils which arise from 
neglect of them, are attributable, to a great ex- 
tent, to man's not adequately applying his powers 
to the promotion of his own enjoyment. 

SECT. If. MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANISED BEING. 

Man is an organised being, and subject to the 
organic laws. An organised being is one which 
derives its existence from a previously existing or- 
ganised being, which subsists on food, which 
grows, attains maturity, decays, and dies. The 
first law, then, that must be obeyed, to render an 
organised being perfect in its kind, is that the 
germ, from which it springs, shall be complete in 
all its parts, and sound in its whole constitution. 
If we sow an acorn, in which some vital part has 
been destroyed altogether, the seedling plant, and 
the full grown oak, if it ever attain to maturity, 
will be deficient in the lineaments which were 
wanting in the embryo root ; if we sow an acorn 
entire in its parts, but only half ripened or dam- 
aged, by damp or other causes, in its whole texture, 
the seedling oak will be feeble, and will probably 
die early. A similar law holds in regard to man. 
A second organic law is, that the organised being, 
the moment it is ushered into life, and so long as 
it continues to live, must be supplied with food, 



AN ORGANISED BEING. 39 

light, air, and other physical aliment requisite for 
its support, in due quantity, and of the kind best 
suited to its particular constitution. Obedience 
to this law is rewarded with a vigorous and healthy 
development of its powers ; and in animals, with 
a pleasing consciousness of existence and apti- 
tude for the performance of their natural func- 
tions ; disobedience to it is punished with feeble- 
ness, stinted growth, general imperfection, or 
death. A third organic law, applicable to man, 
is, that he shall duly exercise his organs, this con- 
dition being an indispensable requisite to health. 
The reward of obedience to this law, is enjoyment 
in the very act of exercising the functions, pleas- 
ing consciousness of existence, and the acquisi- 
tion of numberless gratifications and advantages, of 
which labor, or the exercise of our powers, is the 
procuring means : disobedience is punished with 
derangement and sluggishness of the functions, 
with general uneasiness or positive pain, and with 
the denial of gratification to numerous faculties. 

Directing our attention to the constitution of 
the human body, we perceive that the power of 
reproduction is bestowed on man, and also intel- 
lect, to enable him to discover and obey the con- 
ditions necessary for the transmission of a healthy 
organic frame to his descendants ; that digestive 
organs are given to him for his nutrition, and in- 
numerable vegetable and animal productions are 
placed around him, in wise relationship to these 
organs. 



40 MAN CONSIDERED AS 

Without attempting to expound minutely the 
organic structure of man, or to trace in detail its 
adaptation to his external condition, I shall offer 
some observations in support of the proposition* 
that the due exercise of the osseous, muscular, 
and nervous systems, under the guidance of intel- 
lect and moral sentiment, and in accordance with 
the physical laws, contributes to human enjoy- 
ment ; and, that neglect of this exercise, or an 
abuse of it, by carrying it to excess, or by con- 
ducting it in opposition to the moral, intellectual, 
or physical laws, is punished with pain. 

The earth is endowed with the capability of 
producing an ample supply for all our wants, pro- 
vided we expend muscular and nervous energy in 
its cultivation ; while, in most climates, it refuses 
to produce if we withhold this labor and leave it 
waste. Further, the Creator has presented us 
with timber, metal, wool, and countless materials, 
which, by means of muscular power, may be con- 
verted into clothing, and all the luxuries of life. 
The fertility of the earth, and the demands of the 
body for food and clothing, are so benevolently 
adapted to each other, that, with rational restraint 
on population, a few hours' labor each day from 
every individual capable of labor, would suffice 
to furnish all with every commodity that could 
really add to enjoyment. 

In the tropical regions of the globe, for exam- 
ple, where a high atmospheric temperature dimin- 
ishes the quantum of muscular energv, the fertili- 



AN ORGANISED BEING. 41 

ty and productiveness of the soil are increased in 
a like proportion, so that less labor suffices. Less 
labor, also, is required to provide habitations and 
raiment. In the colder latitudes, muscular ener- 
gy is greatly increased, and there much higher 
demands are made upon it. The earth is more 
sterile, the rude winds require firmer fabrics to 
resist their violence, and the piercing frosts re- 
quire a thicker covering to the body. 

Further, ^the food afforded by the soil in each 
climate is admirably adapted to the maintenance 
of the organic constitution in health, and to the 
supply of the muscular energy requisite for the 
particular wants of the situation. In the Arctic 
Regions no farinaceous food ripens ; but on put- 
ting the question to Dr Richardson, how he, ac- 
customed to the bread and vegetables of the tem- 
perate regions, was able to endure the pure ani- 
mal diet, which formed his only support on his 
expedition to the shores of the Polar Sea along 
with Captain Franklin, he replied, that the effects 
of the extreme dry cold to which they were ex- 
posed, living, as they did, constantly in the open 
air, was to produce a desire for the most stimulat- 
ing food they could obtain ; that bread in such a 
climate was not only not desired, but compara- 
tively impotent, as an article of diet ; that pure 
animal food, and the fatter the better, was the on_ 
ly sustenance that maintained the tone of the 
corporeal system, but that when it was abundant 



42 MAN CONSIDERED AS 

( and the quantity required was much greater than 
in milder latitudes ), a delightful vigor and buoy- 
ancy of mind and body were enjoyed, that ren- 
dered life highly agreeable. Now, in beautiful 
harmony with these wants of the human frame, 
these regions abound, during summer, in count- 
less herds of deer, in rabbits, partridges, ducks, in 
short, in game of every description, and fish : and 
the flesh of these dried, constitutes delicious food 
in winter, when the earth is wrapped in one wide- 
spread covering of snow. ^ 

In Scotland, the climate is moist and cold, the 
greater part of the surface is mountainous, but 
admirably adapted for raising sheep and cattle, 
while a certain portion consists of fertile plains, 
fitted for farinaceous food. . If the same law holds 
in this country, the diet of the people should con- 
sist of animal and farinaceous food, the former 
decidedly predominating. As we proceed to 
warmer latitudes, we find the soil and temperature 
of France less congenial to sheep and cattle, but 
more favorable to corn and wine ; and the French- 
man inherits a native elasticity of body and mind, 
that enables him to flourish in vigor on less of 
animal food, than would be requisite to preserve 
the Scottish Highlander in a like gay and alert 
condition, in the recesses of his mountains. The 
plains of Hindostan are too hot for the sheep and 
ox, but produce rice and vegetable spices in pro- 
digious abundance, and the native is healthy, 



AN ORGANISED BEING. 43 

vigorous and active, when supplied with rice and 
curry, and becomes sick, when obliged to live up- 
on animal diet. He, also, is supplied with less 
muscular energy from this species of food, and 
his soil and climate require far less laborious ex- 
ertion than those of Britain, Germany, or Russia. 
So far, then, the external world appears to be 
wisely and benevolently adapted to the organic 
system of man, that is, to his nutrition, and to 
the development and exercise of his corporeal or- 
gans ; and the natural law appears to be, that all, 
if they desire to enjoy the pleasures attending 
sound and vigorous muscular and nervous systems, 
must expend in labor the energy which the Crea- 
tor has infused into these organs. A wide choice 
is left open to man, as to the mode in which he 
shall exercise his nervous and muscular systems. 
The laborer, for example, digs the ground, and 
the squire engages in the chase. The penalty of 
neglecting this law is debility, bodily and mental, 
lassitude, imperfect digestion, disturbed sleep, bad 
health, and, if carried to a certain length, death. 
The penalty for over-exerting these systems is ex- 
haustion, mental incapacity, the desire of strong 
artificial stimulants, such as ardent spirits, gener- 
al insensibility, and grossness of feeling and per- 
ception, with disease and shortened life. Society 
has not recognised this law, and in consequence, 
the higher orders despise labor, and suffer the 
first penalty ; while the lower orders are oppress- 



44 MENTAL FACULTIES OP MAN. 

ed with toil, and undergo the second, The pen- 
alties serve to provide motives for obedience to 
the law, and whenever it is recognised, and the 
consequences are discovered to be inevitable, men 
will no longer shun labor as painful and ignomi- 
nious, but resort to it as a source of pleasure, as 
well as to avoid the pains inflicted on those who 
neglect it. 

SECT. III. MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL 

MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL BEING. 

In the third place, man is an animal — moral — 
and intellectual being. To discover the adapta- 
tion of these parts of his nature to his external 
circumstances, we must first know what are his 
various animal, moral, and intellectual powers 
themselves. Phrenology gives us a view of them, 
drawn from observation ; and as I have verified 
the inductions of that science, so as to satisfy my- 
self that is the most complete and correct expo- 
sition of the Nature of Man which has yet been 
given, I adopt its classification of faculties as the 
basis of the subsequent observations. According 
to Phrenology, then, the Human Faculties are the 
following : 

Order I. FEELINGS. 

Genus I. PROPENSITIES — Common to Man with 
the Lower Animals. 

1. Amativenessj Produces sexual love. 

2. Philoprogenitiveness. — Uses : Love of offspring. — 

Abuses: Pampering and spoiling children. 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 45 

Concentrativeness. — Uses : It gives the desire for 
permanence in place, and for permanence of emotions 

and ideas in the mind. Abuses: Aversion to move 

abroad ; morbid dwelling on internal emotions and ideas, 
to the neglect of external impressions. 

Adhesiveness. — Uses: Attachment; friendship, and 
society result from it. — Abuses : Clanship for improper 
objects, attachment to worthless individuals. It is gen- 
erally large in women. 

Combativeness. — Uses • Courage to meet danger, 
to overcome difficulties, and to resist attacks. — Abuses ; 
Love of contention, and tendency to provoke and as- 
sault. 

Destructiveness. — Uses: Desire to destroy noxious 
objects, and to kill for food. It is very discernible in 
carnivorous animals. Abuses : Cruelty, desire to tor- 
ment, tendency to passion, rage, harshness and severity 
in speech and writing. 

Constructiveness. — Uses : Desire to build and con- 
struct works of art. Abuses : Construction of engines 

to injure or destroy, and fabrication of objects to deceive 
mankind. 

Acquisitiveness. — Uses r Desire to possess, and 
tendency to accumulate, articles of utility, to provide 
against want. — Abuses : Inordinate desire for property ; 
selfishness ; avarice. 
, Secretiveness. — Uses: Tendency to restrain within 
the mind the various emotions and ideas that involun- 
tarily present themselves, until the judgment has ap- 
proved of giving them utterance; it also aids the artist 
and the actor in giving expression ; and is an ingredient 
in prudence. — Abuses: Cunning, deceit, duplicity, 
lying, and, joined with Acquisitiveness, theft. 



46 MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 

Genus. II. SENTIMENTS. 

I. Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals. 

10. Self-Esteem. — Uses: Self-interest, love of indepen- 
dence, personal dignity. — Abuses: Pride, disdain, 
overweening conceit, excessive selfishness, love of 
dominion. 

II. Love of Approbation. — Uses : Desire of the esteem 
of others, love of praise, desire of fame or glory. — 
Abuses : Vanity, ambition, thirst for praise independent 
of praiseworthiness. 

12. Cautiousness. — Uses: It gives origin to the senti- 

ment of fear, the desire to shun danger, to circumspec- 
tion ; and it is an ingredient in prudence. — Abuses : 
Excessive timidity, poltroonery, unfounded apprehen- 
sions, despondency, melancholy. 

13. Benevolence. — Uses: Desire of the happiness of 
others, universal charity, mildness of disposition, and a 
lively sympathy with the enjoyment of all animated 
heings. — Abuses: Profusion, injurious indulgence of 
the appetites and fancies of others, prodigality, facility 
of temper. 

II. Sentiments proper to Man. 

14. Veneration. — Uses : Tendency to worship, adore, 
venerate, or respect whatever is great and good ; gives 
origin to the religious sentiment. — Abuses : Senseless 
respect for unworthy objects consecrated by time or 
situation, love of antiquated customs, abject subservien- 
cy to persons in authority, superstition. 

15. Hope. — Uses : Tendency to expect and to look forward 
to the future with confidence and reliance ; it cherishes 
faith. — Abuses : Credulity, absurd expectations of 
felicity not founded on reason. 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 47 

16. Ideality. — Uses : Love of the beautiful and splendid, 

the desire of excellence, poetic feeling. — Abuses: 
Extravagance and absurd enthusiasm, preference of 
the showy and glaring to the solid and useful, a tendency 
to dwell in the regions of fancy, and to neglect the 
duties of life. 
Wonder. — Uses : The desire of novelty, admiration of the 
new, the unexpected, the grand, and extraordinary. — 
Abuses : Love of the marvellous, astonishment, — Note. 
Veneration, Hope and Wonder, combined, give the 
tendency to religion ; their abuses produce superstition 
and belief in false miracles, in prodigies, magic, ghosts, 
and all supernatural absurdities. 

17. Consciousness. — Uses: It gives origin to the senti- 
ment of justice, or respect for the rights of others, open- 
ness to conviction, the love of truth. — Abuses : 
Scrupulous adherence to noxious principles when 
ignorantly embraced, excessive refinement in the views 
of duty and obligation, excess in remorse, or self-con- 
demnation. 

18. Firmness. — Uses: Determination, perseverance, 

steadiness of purpose. — Abuses : Stubbornness, infatu- 
ation, tenacity in evil. 



Order II. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 
Genus I. EXTERNAL SENSES. 

■^1 Uses : To bring man into communi- 

Feeling or Touch. cation with external objects, and 

Taste. to enable him to enjoy them. — 

Smell. y Abuses: Excessive indulgence in 

Hearing. the pleasures arising from the sen- 

Light. ses, to the extent of impairing the 

J organs and debilitating the mind. 



48 MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 

Genus II, INTELLECTUCTAL FACULTIES — 

which perceive existence. 

19. Individuality — Takes cognizance of existence 
and simple facts. 

Eventuality — Takes cognizance of occurrences and 
events. 

20. Form — Renders man observant of form. 

21. Size — Renders man observant of dimensions, and aids 

perspective. 

22. Weight — Communicates the perception of momen- 
tum, weight, resistance, and aids equilibrium. 

23. Coloring — Gives perception of colors. 

Genus III. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES— which 
perceive therelations of external objects. 

24. Locality — Gives the idea of space and relative 
position. 

25. Order — Communicates the love of physical arrange- 
ment. 

26. Time — Gives rise to the perception of duration. 

27. Number — Gives a turn for arithmetic and algebra. 

28. Tujve — The sense of Melody arises from it. 

29. Language — Gives a facility in acquiring a knowledge 
of arbitrary signs to express thoughts — a facility in the 
use of them — and a power of inventing them. 

Genus IV. REFLECTING FACULTIES — which 
compare, judge, and discriminate. 

30. Comparison — Gives the power of discovering analo- 
gies and resemblances. 

31. Causality — To trace the dependencies of phenom- 
ena, and the relation of cause and effect. 

32. Wit — Gives the feeling and the ludicrous. 

33. Imitation — To copy the manners, gestures, and 
actions of others, and nature generally. 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 49 

The first glance at these faculties suffices to 
show, that they are not all equal in excellence and 
elevation ; that some are common to man with 
the lower animals ; and others peculiar to man. In 
comparing the human mind, therefore, with its ex- 
ternal condition, it becomes an object of primary 
importance to discover the relative subordination 
of these different orders of powers. If the Ani- 
mal Faculties are naturally or necessarily supreme, 
then external nature, if it be wisely constituted, 
may be expected to bear direct reference, in its 
arrangements, to this supremacy. If the Moral 
and Intellectual Faculties hold the ascendancy, 
then the constitution of external nature may be 
expected to be in harmony with them, when pre- 
dominant. Let us attend to these questions. 

SECT. IV. THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH 

EACH OTHER J OR THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL 
SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 

According to the phrenological theory of hu- 
man nature, the faculties are divided into Propen- 
sities common to man with the lower animals, Sen- 
timents common to man, with the lower animals, 
Sentiments proper to man, and Intellect. Every 
faculty stands in a definite relation to certain ex? 
ternal objects ; — when it is internally active it de- 
sires these objects ; — r when they are presented to 
it they excite it to activity, and delight it with 
agreeable sensations. Human happiness and mis-r 



50 SUPREMACY OF THE 

ery are resolvable into the gratification or denial 
of gratification of one or more of our active fac- 
ulties, before described, of the external senses, 
and the feelings connected with our bodily frame. 
The faculties, in themselves, are mere instincts ; 
the moral sentiments and intellect are higher 
instincts than the animal propensities. Every 
faculty is good in itself, but all are liable to abuse. 
Their manifestations are right only when directed 
by enlightened intellect and moral sentiment. In 
maintaining the supremacy, of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect, I do not consider them suffi- 
cient to direct conduct by their mere instinctive 
suggestions. To fit them to discharge this im- 
portant duty, they must be illuminated by knoio- 
Itdge of science and of moral and religious duty ; 
but whenever their dictates, thus enlightened, 
oppose the solicitations of the propensities, the 
latter must yield, otherwise, by the constitution of 
external nature, evil will inevitably ensue. This 
is what I mean by nature being constituted in 
harmony with the supremacy of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect. Let us consider the faculties 
themselves. 

The first three propensities, Amativeness, Philo- 
progenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, or the group 
of the domestic affections, desire a conjugal part- 
ner, offspring, and friends ; the obtaining of these 
affords them delight, — the removal of them occa- 
sions pain. But to render an individual happy, 
the whole faculties must be gratified harmonious- 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 51 

ly, or at least the gratification of one or more 
must not offend any of the others. For example, 
suppose the group of the domestic affections to be 
highly interested in an individual, and strongly to 
desire to form an alliance with him, but that the 
person so loved is improvident and immoral, and 
altogether an object which the faculties of Self- 
esteem, Love of Approbation, Benevolence, Vene- 
ration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, if left 
dispassionately to survey his qualities, could not 
approve of; then, if an alliance be formed with 
him, under the ungovernable impulses of the form- 
er faculties, bitter days of repentance must neces- 
sarily follow, when these begin to languish, and 
the latter faculties receive offence from his quali- 
ties. If, on the other hand, the domestic affec- 
tions are guided by intellect to an object pleasing 
to the latter powers, these themselves will be 
gratified, they will double the delights afforded by 
the former faculties, and render the enjoyment 
permanent. 

The great distinction between the animal facul- 
ties and the powers proper to man, is, that the 
object of the former is the preservation of the in- 
dividual himself, or his family ; while the latter 
have the welfare 0/ others, and our duties to God, 
as their ends. Even the domestic affections, 
amiable and respectable as they undoubtedly are 
when combined with the moral feelings, have self 
as their object. The love of children, springing 
from Philoprogenitiveness, when acting alone, is 



52 SUPREMACY OF THE 

the same in kind as that of the miser for his gold ; 
an intense interest in the object, for the sake of 
the gratification it affords to his own mind, with- 
out regard for the object on its own account. 
This truth is recognised by Sir Walter Scott- 
He says, ' Elspat's ardent, tlwugli selfish affection 
for her son, incapable of being qualified by a re- 
gard for the true interests of the unfortunate object 
of her attachment, resembled the instinctive fond- 
ness of the animal race for their offspring ; and, 
diving little farther into futurity than one of the 
inferior creatures, she only felt that to be separated 
from Hamish, ivas to die. } * 

In man, this faculty generally acts along with 
Benevolence, and a disinterested desire of the 
happiness of the child mingles along with, and 
elevates the mere instinct of, Philoprogenitive- 
ness ; but the sources of these two affections are 
different, their degrees vary in different persons, 
and their ends also are dissimilar. 

The same observation applies to the affection 
proceeding from Adhesiveness. When this facul- 
ty acts alone, it desires, for its own satisfaction, a 
friend to love ; but, if Benevolence do not act 
along with it, it cares nothing for the happiness 
of that friend, except in so far as his welfare may 
be necessary to its own gratification. The horse 
feels melancholy when his companion is removed; 
but the feeling appears to be one of uneasiness at 

^Chronicles of Cannongate, vol. i. p. 281. 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 53 

the absence of an object which gratified his Adhe- 
siveness. His companion may have been led to a 
richer pasture, and introduced to more agreeable 
society ; yet this does not assuage the distress 
suffered by him at his removal ; his tranquillity, in 
short, is restored only by time causing the activity 
of Adhesiveness to subside, or by the substitution 
of another object on which it may exert itself. 
In human nature, the effect of the faculty, when 
acting singly, is the same ; and this accounts for 
the fact of the almost total indifference of many 
persons who were really attached, by Adhesive- 
ness, to each other, when one falls into misfor- 
tune, and becomes a disagreeable object to the 
Self-esteem and Love of Approbation of the other. 
Suppose two persons, elevated in rank, and pos- 
sessed of affluence, to have each Adhesiveness, 
Self-esteem, and Love of approbation large, with 
Benevolence and Conscientiousness moderate, it 
is obvious that, while both are in prosperity, they 
may really like each other's society, and feel a 
reciprocal attachment, because there will be mu- 
tual'sympathy in their Adhesiveness, and the Self- 
esteem and Love of Approbation of each will be 
gratified by the rank and circumstances of his 
friend ; but imagine one of them to fall into mis- 
fortune, and to cease to be an object gratifying to 
Self-esteem and Love of Approbation ; suppose 
that he becomes a poor friend instead of a rich 
and influential one, the harmony between their 
selfish faculties will be broken, and then Adhe- 



54 SUPREMACY OF THE 

siveness in the one who remains rich will transfer 
its affection to another individual who may gratify 
it, and also supply agreeable sensations to Self- 
esteem and Love of Approbation, — to a genteel 
friend, in short, who will look well in the eye of 
the world. 

Much of this conduct occurs in society, and the 
whining complaint is very ancient, that the storms 
of adversity disperse friends just as the winter 
winds strip leaves from the forest that gaily adorn- 
ed it in the sunshine of summer ; and many moral 
sentences are pointed, and episodes finely turned, 
on the selfishness and corruption of poor human 
nature. But such friendships were attachments 
founded on the lower feelings, which, by their con- 
stitution, are selfish, and the desertion complained 
of is the fair and legitimate result of the principles 
on which both parties acted during the gay hours 
of prosperity. If we look at the head of Sheri- 
dan, we shall perceive large Adhesiveness, Self- 
esteem, and, Love of Approbation, with deficient 
reflecting organs, and moderate Conscientious- 
ness. He has large Individuality, Comparison, 
Secretiveness, and Imitation, which gave .him 
talents for observation and display. When these 
earned him a brilliant reputation, he was surrounded 
by friends, and he himself probably felt attach- 
ment in return. But his deficient morality pre- 
vented him from loving his friends with a true, dis- 
interested, and honest regard ; he abused their 
kindness, and, as he sunk into poverty and wretch- 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 55 

edness, and ceased to be an honor to them, or to 
excite their Love of Approbation, they almost all 
deserted him. Bat the whole connexion was 
founded on selfish principles ; Sheridan honored 
them, and they flattered Sheridan ; and the 
abandonment was the natural consequence of the 
cessation of gratification to their selfish feelings. 
I shall by-and-by point out the sources of a loftier 
and a purer friendship, and its effects. 

To proceed with the propensities : Combative- 
ness and Destructiveness also are in their nature 
purely selfish. If aggression is committed against 
us, Combativeness draws the sword and repels the 
attack : Destructiveness inflicts vengeance for the 
offence ; both feelings are obviously the very oppo- 
site of benevolent. I do not say, that, in themselves, 
they are despicable or sinful ; on the contrary, 
they are necessary, and when legitimately employ- 
ed, highly useful ; but still self is the object of 
their supreme regard. 

The next organ is Acquisitiveness; and self is 
eminently its object. It desires blindly to possess, 
is pleased with accumulating, and suffers great 
uneasiness in being deprived of its objects. It is 
highly useful, like all the other faculties, for even 
Benevolence cannot give away until Acquisitive- 
ness have acquired. There are friendships, particu- 
larly among mercantile men, founded on Adhesive- 
ness and Acquisitiveness, just as in fashionable life 
they are founded on Adhesiveness and Love of 
Approbation. Two individuals fall into a course 



56 SUPREMACY OF THE 

of dealing, by which each reaps profit by trans- 
actions with the other : this leads to intimacy, and 
Adhesiveness probably mingles its influence, and pro- 
duces a feeling of actual attachment. The moment, 
however, that the Acquisitiveness of the one suffers 
the least inroad from that of the other, and their 
interests clash, they are apt, if no higher principle 
unite them, to become bitter enemies. It is proba- 
ble that, while these fashionable and commercial 
friendships last, the parties may profess great recip- 
rocal esteem and regard, and that, when a rupture 
takes place, the one who is depressed, or disoblig- 
ed, may recall these expressions and charge them 
as hypocritical; but they really were not so : each 
probably felt from Adhesiveness and gratified Love 
of Approbation something which he colored over, 
and perhaps believed to be disinterested friendship ; 
but if each would honestly probe his own con- 
science, he would be obliged to acknowledge that 
the whole basis of the connexion was selfish ; and 
hence, that the result is just what every man ought 
to expect, who places his reliance for happiness 
chiefly on the lower propensities. 

Secretiveness is also selfish in its nature ; for it 
suppresses feelings that might injure us with other 
individuals, and desires to find out secrets that may 
enable its possessor to guard self against hostile 
plots or designs. In itself it does not desire, in 
any respect, the benefit of others. 

Self-esteem is, in its very essence and name, 
selfish ; it is the love of ourselves, and the esteem 
of ourselves par excellence. 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 57 

Love of Approbation, although many think 
otherwise, is also in itself a purely selfish feeling. 
Its real desire is applause to ourselves, to be esteem- 
ed ourselves, and if it prompt us to do services, or 
to say agreeable things to others, it is not from love 
of them, but purely for the sake of obtaining 
self-gratification. 

Suppose, for example, we are acquainted with a 
person who has committed an error in some public 
duty, who has done or said something that the 
public disapprove of, and which we see to be 
really wrong, Benevolence and Conscientiousness 
would prompt us to lay before our friend the very 
head and front of his offending, and conjure him 
to forsake his error, and publicly make amends : — 
Love of Approbation, on the other hand, would 
either render us averse to speak to him on the 
subject, lest he should be offended, or prompt us to 
extenuate his fault, and represent it as either posi- 
tively no error at all, or as extremely trivial. If we 
analyze the motive which prompts to this course, 
we shall find that it is not love of our friend, or 
consideration for his welfare, but fear lest, by our 
presenting to him disagreeable truths, he should 
feel offended at us, and deprive us of the gratifica- 
tion afforded to our Love of Approbation by his 
good opinion : in short, the motive is purely sel- 
fish. 

Another illustration occurs. A manufacturer in 
a country town, having acquired a considerable 
fortune by trade, applied part of it in building a 



58 SUPREMACY OP THE 

princely mansion, which he furnished in the rich- 
est and most expensive style of fashion. He asked 
his customers, near and distant, to visit him when 
calling on business, and led them into a dining- 
room or drawing-room that absolutely dazzled them 
with its magnificence. This excited their wonder and 
curiosity, which was precisely the effect he desired ; 
he then led them over his whole apartments, and 
displayed before them his grandeur and taste. In 
doing so, he imagined that he was conferring a high 
pleasure on them, and filling their minds with an 
intense admiration of his greatness ; but the real 
effect was very different. The motive of his con- 
duct was not love of them, or regard for their hap- 
piness or welfare ; it was not Benevolence to 
others that prompted him to build the palace : it 
was not Veneration,, nor was it Conscientiousness. 
The fabric sprung from Self-esteem and Love of 
Approbation combined, no doubt, with considera- 
ble Intellect and Ideality. In leading his humble 
brethren in trade through the princely halls, over 
the costly carpets, and amidst the gilding, burnish- 
ing, and rich array, that everywhere met their eyes, 
he exulted in the consciousness of his own impor- 
tance, and asked for their admiration, not as an 
expression of respect for any real benefits conferred 
upon them, but as the much relished food of his 
own selfish vanity. 

Let us attend, in the next place, to the effect of 
this display on those to whom it was addressed- 
To gain their esteem or affection, it was necessary 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 59 

to manifest towards them real Benevolence, real 
regard, and impartial justice ; in short, to cause 
another individual to love us, we must make him 
the object of the moral sentiments, which have his 
good and happiness for their end. Here, however, 
these were not the inspiring motives of the conduct, 
and the want of thern would be instinctively felt. 
The customers, who possessed the least shrewd- 
ness, would ascribe the whole exhibition to the 
vanity of the owner, and they would either pity or 
hate him; if their own moral sentiments predomi- 
nated, they would pity ; if their Self-esteem and 
Love of Approbation were paramount, these would 
be offended at his assumed superiority, and would 
rouse Destructiveness to hate him. It would only 
be the silliest and the vainest who would be at all 
gratified ; and their satisfaction would arise from 
the feeling, that they could now return to their own 
circle, and boast how great a friend they had, and 
in how grand a style they had been entertained, — 
this display being a direct gratification of their own 
Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, by their 
identifying themselves with him. Even this pleas- 
ure could be reaped only where the admirer was so 
humble in rank as to entertain no idea of rivalship, 
and so limited in intellect and sentiments as not to 
perceive the worthlessness of the qualities by which 
he was captivated. 

In like manner, when persons, even of more 
sense than the manufacturer here alluded to, give 
entertainments to their friends, they sometimes fail 



60 SUPREMACY OF THE 

in their object from the same cause. They wish 
to show off themselves as their leading motive, 
much more than to confer real happiness upon 
their acquaintances ; and, by the irreversible law 
of human nature, this must fail in exciting good 
will and pleasure in the minds of those to whom it 
is addressed, because it disagreeably affects their 
Self-esteem and Love of Approbation. In short, 
to be really successful in gratifying our friends, we 
must keep our own selfish faculties in due subordi- 
nation, and pour out copious streams of real kind- 
ness from the higher sentiments, animated and 
elevated by intellect ; and all who have experienced 
the heart-felt joy and satisfaction attending an en- 
tertainment conducted on this principle, will never 
quarrel with the homeliness of the fare, or feel 
uneasy about the absence of fashion in the service. 

Cautiousness is the next faculty, and is a senti- 
ment instituted to protect self from danger, and 
has clearly a regard to individual safety as its pri- 
mary object. 

This terminates the list of the feelings common 
to man with the lower animal,* and which, as we 
have seen, have self preservation as their leading 
objects. They are given for the protection and 

* Benevolence is stated in the works on Phrenology as 
common to man with the lower animals ; but in them it ap 
pears to produce rather passive meekness and good nature, 
than actual desire for each other's happiness. In the human 
race, this last is its proper function ; and, viewed in this 
light, I here treat of it as exclusively a human faculty. 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 61 

advantage of our animal nature, and, when duly 
regulated, are highly useful, and also respectable, 
viewed with reference to that end ; but they are 
sources of innumerable evils when allowed to usurp 
the ascendency over the moral faculties, and to be- 
come the leading springs of our social intercourse. 

I proceed to notice the moral sentiments which 
constitute the proper human faculties, and to point 
out their objects and relations. 

Benevolence has no reference to self. It desires 
purely and disinterestedly the happiness of its ob- 
jects ; it loves for the sake of the person beloved ; 
if he be well, and the sunbeams of posperity shine 
warmly around him, it exults and delights in his 
felicity. It desires a diffusion of joy, and renders 
the feet swift and the arm strong in the cause of 
charity and love. 

Veneration also has no reference to self. It 
looks up with a pure and elevated emotion to the 
being to whom it is directed, whether God or our 
fellow-men, and delights in the contemplation of 
their venerable and admirable qualities. It de- 
sires to find out excellence, and to dwell and feed 
upon it, and renders self lowly, humble, and sub- 
missive. 

Hope spreads its gay wing in the boundless re- 
gions of futurity. It desires good, and expects it 
to come ; " it incites us to aim at a good which 
we can live without ;" its influence is soft, soothing, 
and happy ; but self is not its direct or particular 
object. 

4 



62 SUPREMACY OP THE 

Ideality delights in perfection from the pure 
pleasure of contemplating it. So far as it is con- 
cerned, the picture, the statue, the landscape, or 
the mansion, on which it abides with intensest 
rapture, will be as pleasing, although the property 
of another, as if all its own. It is a spring that is 
touched by the beautiful wherever it exists ; and 
hence its means of enjoyment are as unbounded as 
the universe is extensive. 

Wonder seeks the new and the striking, and is 
delighted with change ; but there is no desire of 
appropriation to self in its longings. 

Conscientiousness stands in the midway between 
self and other individuals. It is a regulator of our 
animal feelings, and points out the limit which 
they must not pass. It desires to do to another as 
we would have another to do to us, and thus is a 
guardian of the welfare of our fellow men, while it 
sanctions and supports our personal feelings within 
the bounds of a due moderation. It is a noble 
feeling ; and the mere consciousness of its being 
bestowed upon us, ought to bring home to our 
minds an intense conviction that the Author of the 
universe is at once wise and just. 

Intellect is universal in its application. It may 
become the handmaid of any of the faculties ; it 
may devise a plan to murder or to bless, to steal 
or to bestow, to rear up or to destroy ; but, as its 
proper use is to observe the different objects of 
creation, to mark their relations, and direct the 
propensities and sentiments to their proper and 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 63 

legitimate enjoyments, it has a boundless sphere 
of activity, and, when properly exercised and 
applied, is a source of high and inexhaustible de- 
light. 

Keeping in view the great difference now pointed 
out between the animal and properly human facul- 
ties, the reader will perceive that three conse- 
quences follow from the constitution of these 
powers : First, All the faculties, when in excess, 
are insatiable, and, from the constitution of the 
world, never can be satisfied. They indeed may 
be soon satisfied on any particular occasion. Food 
will soon fill the stomach ; indulgence will speedily 
assuage Amativeness ; success in a speculation 
will render Acquisitiveness quiescent for the mo- 
ment: a triumph will satisfy for the time Self- 
esteem and Love of Approbation ; a long concert 
will fatigue Tune ; and, too long a discourse afflict 
Causality. But after repose they will all renew 
their solicitations. They must all therefore be 
regulated ; and, in particular, the lower propensi- 
ties, from having self as their primary object, and 
being blind to consequences, do not set limits to 
their own indulgence ; and hence lead to misery 
to the individual, and injury to society, when al- 
lowed to exceed the limits prescribed by the superior 
sentiments and intellect. 

As this circumstance attending the propensities 
is of great practical importance, I shall make a 
few observations in elucidation of it. The births 
and lives of children depend upon circumstances, 



64 SUPREMACY OP THE 

over which unenlightened men have but a limited 
control : and hence an individual, whose supreme 
happiness springs from the gratification of Philo- 
progenitiveness will, by the mere predominance of 
that propensity, be led to neglect or infringe the 
natural laws, on which the lives and welfare of 
children depend, and which can be observed only 
by active moral and intellectual faculties. Hence 
he will be in constant danger of anguish and dis- 
appointment, by the removal of his children, or by 
their undutiful conduct and immoral behavior. 
Besides, Philoprogenitiveness, acting along with 
Self-esteem and Love' of Approbation, would, in 
each parent, desire that his children should pos- 
sess the highest rank, the greatest wealth, and be 
distinguished for the most splendid talents. Now 
the highest, the greatest, and the most splendid of 
any qualities, necessarily imply the existence of 
inferior degrees, and are not attainable except by 
one. The animal faculties, therefore, must be re- 
strained in their desires, and directed to their ob- 
jects by the human faculties, by the sentiments of 
Conscientiousness, Benevolence, Veneration, and 
Intellect, otherwise they will inevitably lead to 
disappointment. In like manner, Acquisitiveness 
desires wealth, and, as nature affords only a cer- 
tain number of quarters of grain annually, a cer- 
tain portion of cattle, of fruit, of flax, and other 
articles, from which food, clothing, and wealth, 
are manufactured ; and as this quantity, divided 
equally among all the members of a state, would 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 65 

afford but a moderate portion to each, it is self- 
evident that, if all desire to acquire and possess 
a large amount, ninetynine out of the hundred 
must be disappointed. This disappointment, from 
the very constitution of nature, is inevitable to 
the greater number ; and when individuals form 
schemes of aggrandisement, originating from de- 
sires communicated by the animal faculties alone, 
they would do well to keep this law of nature in 
view. When we look around, we see how few 
make rich ; how few succeed in accomplishing all 
their lofty anticipations for the advancement of 
their children ; how few attain the summit of am- 
bition, compared with the multitudes who fall short. 
Love of Approbation and Self-esteem, when unre- 
gulated, desire the highest station of ambition ; 
but, as these faculties exist in all men, and only 
one can be greatest, they will prompt one man to 
defeat the gratification of another. All this arises, 
not from error and imperfection in the institutions 
of the Creator, but from blindness in men to their 
own nature, to the nature of external objects, and 
to the relations established between these ; in short, 
blindness to the principles of the divine administra- 
tion of the world. 

Secondly. The animal propensities being infe- 
rior in their nature to the human faculties, their 
gratifications, when not approved of by the latter, 
leave a painful feeling of discontent and dissatis- 
faction in the mind, occasioned by the secret dis- 
clamation of their excessive action by the higher 



66 SUPREMACY OF THE 

feelings. Suppose, for example, a young person 
to set out in life, with the idea that the great ob- ^ 
ject of existence is to acquire wealth, to rear and 
provide for a family, and to attain honor and dis- 
tinction among men ; all these desires spring from 
the propensities alone. , Imagine him to rise early 
and sit up late, to put forth all the energies of a 
powerful mind in buying, selling, and making rich, 
and that he is successful ; it is obvious, that, i 
prompting to this course of action, Benevolence, 
Veneration, and Conscientiousness, had no share; 
and that, in pursuing it, they have not received 
direct and intended gratification ; they would have 
anxiously and wearily watched the animal facul- 
ties, longing for the hour when they were to say- 
Enough ; their whole occupation, in the mean 
time, being to restrain them from such gross ex- 
travagances as would have defeated their own ends. 
In the domestic circle, again, a spouse and chil- 
dren would gratify Philoprogenitiveness and Adhe- 
siveness, and their advancement would please 
Self-esteem and Love of Approbation ; but here 
also the moral sentiments would act the part of 
mere spectators and sentinels to impose restraints; 
they would receive no direct enjoyment, and would 
not be recognised as the fountain of the conduct. 
In the pursuit of honor, suppose an office of dig- 
nity and power, or high rank in society, the main- 
springs of exertion would still be Self-esteem and 
Love of Approbation, and the moral sentiments 
would be compelled to wait in tiresome vacuity, 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 67 

without having their energies called directly into 
play, so as to give them full scope in their legiti- 
mate sphere. 

Suppose, then, this individual to have reached 
the evening of life, and to look back on the pleas- 
ures and pains of his past existence, he must feel 
that there has been vanity and vexation of spirit, 
— the want of a satisfying portion ; and for this 
sufficient reason, that the highest of his faculties 
have been all along scarcely employed. In esti- 
mating, also, the real affection and esteem of man- 
kind which he has gained, he will find it to be 
small or great in exact proportion to the degree 
in which he has manifested, in his habitual con- 
duct, the lower or the higher faculties. If socie- 
ty has seen him selfish in his pursuit of wealth, 
selfish in his domestic affections, selfish in his am- 
bition ; although he may have gratified all these 
feelings without positive encroachment on the 
rights of others, they will still look coldly on him, 
they will feel no glow of affection towards him, 
no elevated respect, no sincere admiration ; he 
will see and feel this, and complain bitterly that 
all is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the fault 
has been his own ; love, esteem, and sincere re- 
spect, arise, by the Creator's laws, not from con- 
templating the manifestations of plodding, selfish 
faculties, but only from the display of Benevo- 
lence, Veneration, and Justice, as the motives and 
end of our conduct ; and the individual supposed 
has reaped the natural and legitimate produce of 



68 SUPREMACY OF THE 

the soil which he cultivated, and eaten the fruit 
which he has reared. 

Thirdly. The higher feelings, when directed 
by enlightened intellect, have a boundless scope 
for gratification ; their least indulgence is delight- 
ful, and their highest activity is bliss ; they cause 
no repentance, leave no void, but render life a 
scene at once of peaceful tranquillity and sustain- 
ed felicity ; and, what is of much importance, 
conduct proceeding from their dictates carries in 
its train the highest gratification to the animal 
propensities themselves, of which the latter are 
susceptible. At the same time, it must be observ- 
ed, that the sentiments err, and lead also to evil, 
when not regulated by enlightened intellect ; that 
intellect in its turn must give due weight to the 
existence and desires of both the propensities and 
sentiments, as elements in the human constitution, 
before it can arrive at sound conclusions regard- 
ing conduct : and that rational actions and true 
happiness flow from the gratification of all the 
faculties in harmony with each other ; the senti- 
ments and intellect bearing the directing sway. 

This proposition may be shortly illustrated. 
Imagine an individual to commence life, with 
the thorough conviction that the higher sentiments 
are the superior powers, and that they ought to be 
the sources of his actions, the first effect would 
be to cause him to look habitually outward on 
other men and on his Creator, instead of looking 
inward on himself as the object of his highest* and 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 69 

chief* regard. Benevolence would shed on his 
mind the conviction, that there are other human 
beings as dear to the Creator as he, as much enti- 
tled to enjoyment as he, and that his duty is to 
seek no gratification to himself which is to injure 
them ; but, on the contrary, to act so as to confer 
on them, by his daily exertions, all the services in 
his power. Veneration would give a strong feel- 
ing of reliance on the power and wisdom of God, 
that such conduct would conduce to the highest 
gratification of all his faculties ; it would add 
also an habitual respect for his fellow men, as be- 
ings deserving his regard, and to whose reasona- 
ble wishes he was bound to yield a willing and sin- 
cere obedience. Lastly, Conscientiousness would 
prompt him to apply the scales of rigid justice to 
his animal desires, and to curb and restrain each 
so as to prevent the slightest infraction on what is 
due to his fellow men. 

Let us trace, then, the operation of these prin- 
ciples in ordinary life. Suppose a friendship 
formed by such an individual : his first and fun- 
damental principle is Benevolence, which inspires 
with a sincere, pure, and disinterested regard for 
his friend ; he desires his welfare for his friend's 
sake ; next Veneration reinforces this love by the 
secret and grateful acknowledgment which it 
makes to Heaven for the joys conferred upon the 
mind by this pure emotion, and also by the habi- 
tual deference which it inspires towards our friend 
himself, rendering us ready to yield where com* 



70 SUPREMACY OP THE 

pliance is becoming, and curbing our selfish feel^ 
ings when these would intrude by interested or 
arrogant pretensions on his enjoyment ; and third- 
ly, Conscientiousness, ever on the watch, pro- 
claims the duty of making no unjust demands on 
the Benevolence of our friend, but of limiting our 
whole intercourse with him on an interchange of 
kindness, good offices, and reciprocal affection. 
Intellect, acting along with these principles, 
would point out, as an indispensable requisite to 
such an attachment, that the friend himself should 
be so far under the influence of the sentiments, as 
to be able, in some degree, to meet them ; for, if 
he were immoral, selfish, vainly ambitious, or, in 
short, under the habitual influence of the propen- 
sities, the sentiments could not love and respect 
him ; they might pity him as unfortunate, but 
love him they could not, because this is impossible 
by the very laws of their constitution. 

Let us now attend to the degree in which such 
a friendship would gratify the lower propensities. 
In the first place, how would Adhesiveness exult 
and rejoice in such an attachment ! It would be 
overpowered with delight, because, if the intellect 
were convinced that the friend habitually acknow- 
ledged the supremacy of the higher sentiments, 
Adhesiveness might pour forth all its ardor ? and 
cling to its object with the closest bonds of affec- 
tion. The friend would not encroach on us for 
evil, because his Benevolence and Justice would 
oppose this; he would not lay aside restraint, and 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 71 

break through the bonds of affection by undue fa- 
miliarity, because Veneration would forbid this ; he 
would not injure us in our name, person, or repu- 
tation, because Conscientiousness, Veneration and 
Benevolence, all combined, would prevent such 
conduct. Here then Adhesiveness, freed from the 
fear of evil, from the fear of deceit, from the fear 
of dishonor, because a friend who should habitu- 
ally act thus, could not possibly fall into dishon- 
or, would be at liberty to take its deepest draught 
of affectionate attachment ; it would receive a gra- 
tification which it is impossible it could attain, 
while acting in combination with the purely self- 
ish faculties. What delight, too, would such a 
friendship afford to Self-esteem and Love of Ap- 
probation ! There would be an internal approval 
of ourselves, that would legitimately gratify Self- 
esteem, because it would arise from a survey of 
pure motives, and just and benevolent actions. 
Love of Approbation also, would be gratified in 
the highest degree ; for every act of affection, 
every expression of esteem, from such a friend, 
would be so purified by Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Conscientiousness, that it would form the le- 
gitimate food on which Love of Approbation 
might feast and be satisfied ; it would fear no hol- 
lowness beneath, no tattling in absence, no secret 
smoothing over for the sake of mere effect, no en- 
vyings, and no jealousies. In short, friendship 
founded on the higher sentiments, as the ruling 
motives, would delight the mind with gladness 



72 SUPREMACY OF THE, ETC. 

and sunshine, and gratify all the faculties, animal, 
moral, and intellectual, in harmony with each other. 
By this illustration, the reader will understand 
more clearly what I mean by the harmony of the 
faculties. The fashionable and commercial friend- 
ships of which I spoke, gratified the propensities 
of Adhesiveness, Love of Abprobation, Self-es- 
teem, and Acquisitiveness, but left out, as funda- 
mental principles, all the higher sentiments; — 
there was, therefore, a want of harmony in these 
instances, an absence of full satisfaction, an un- 
certainty and changeableness, which gave rise to 
only a mixed and imperfect enjoyment while the 
friendship lasted, and to a feeling of painful dis- 
appointment, and of vanity and vexation, when a 
rupture occurred. The error, in such cases, con- 
sists in founding attachment on the lower facul- 
ties, seeing they, by themselves, are not calculated 
to form a stable basis of affection, instead of build- 
ing it on them and the higher sentiments, which 
afford a foundation for real, lasting, and satisfactory 
friendship. In complaining of the vanity and vexa- 
tion of attachments springing from the lower facul- 
ties exclusively, we are like men who should try to 
build a pyramid on its smaller end, and then, la- 
ment the hardness of their fate, and speak of the 
unkindness of Providence, when it fell. A similar 
analysis of all other pleasures founded on the ani- 
mal propensities chiefly, would give similar results. 
In short, happiness must be viewed by men as con- 



FACULTIES OF MAN. 73 

nected inseparably with the exercise of the three 
great classes of faculties, the moral sentiments and 
intellect exercising the directing and controlling 
sway, before it can be permanently attained. 

SECT. V. THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH 

EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

Having considered man as a. physical being, and 
briefly adverted to the adaptation of his constitu- 
tion to the physical laws of creation ; having view- 
ed him as an organised being, and traced the rela- 
tions of his organic structure to his external circum- 
stances ; having taken a rapid survey of his facul- 
ties, as an animal, moral, and intellectual being, — 
with their uses and the forms of their abuse, — and 
having contrasted these faculties with each other, 
and discovered the supremacy of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect, I proceed to compare his 
faculties with external objects, in order to discover 
what provision has been made for their gratifica- 
tion. 

1. Amativeness is a feeling obviously necessary to the 

continuance of the species ; and one which, properly 
regulated, is not offensive to reason ; — opposite sexes 
exist to provide for its gratification.* 

2. Ph iloprogen] ti veness is given, — and offspring exist. 

3. Concentrativeness is conferred, — and the other 

faculties are its objects. 

*The nature and sphere of activity of the phrenological 
faculties is explained at length in the ' System of Phrenolo- 
gy,' to which I beg to refer. Here I can only indicate 
general ideas. 



74 FACULTIES OF MAN 

4. Adhesiveness is given, — and country and friends 

exist. 

5. Combativeness is bestowed — and physical and moral 

obstacles exist, requiring courage to meet and subdue 
them. 
<3. Destructiveness is given, — and man is constituted 
with a carnivorous stomach, and animals to be killed 
and eaten exist. Besides, the whole combinations of 
creation are in a state of decay and renovation. In 
the animal kingdom almost every species of creatures 
is the prey of some other ; and the faculty of Destruc- 
tiveness places the human mind in harmony with this 
order of creation. Destruction makes way for renova- 
tion, and the act of renovation furnishes occasion for the 
activity of our powers ; and activity is pleasure. That 
destruction is a natural institution is unquestionable. Not 
only has nature taught the spider to construct a web for 
the purpose of ensnaring flies, that it may devour them, 
and constituted beasts of prey with carnivorous teeth, 
but she has formed even plants, such as the Drosera, to 
catch and kill flies, and use them for food. Destruc- 
tiveness serves also to give weight to indignation, a 
most important defensive as well as vindicatory pur- 
pose. It is a check upon undue encroachment, and 
tends to constrain mankind to pay regard to the rights 
and feelings of each other. When properly regulated, 
it is an able assistant to justice. 

7. Constructiveness is given, — and materials for con- 

structing artificial habitations, raiment, ships, and 
various other fabrics that add to the enjoyment of life, 
have been provided to give it scope. 

8. Acquisit/veNess is bestowed, — and property exists 

capable of being collected, preserved, and applied to 
use. 
9. Secretiveness is given, — and our faculties possess 
internal activity requiring to be restrained, until fit oc- 
occasions and legitimate objects present themselves for 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 75 

their gratification ; which restraint is rendered not only 
possible but agreeable, by the propensity in question. 
While we suppress and confine one feeling within the l 
limits of our own consciousness, we exercise and grati- 
fy another in the very act of doing so. 
10. Self-Esteem is given, — and we have an individual 
existence and individual interests, as its objects. 

11. Love of Approbation is bestowed, — and we are 
surrounded by our fellow men, whose good opinion is 
the object of its desire. 

12. Cautiousness is given, — and it is admirably adapted 

to the nature of the external world. The human body 
is combustible, is liable to be destroyed by violence, 
to suffer injury from extreme wet and winds, &c. ; and 
it is necessary for us to be habitually watchful to avoid 
these sources of calamity. Accordingly, Cautious- 
ness is bestowed on us as an ever watchful sentinel, 
constantly whispering, ' Take care.' There is ample 
scope for the legitimate and pleasurable exercise of all 
our faculties, without running into these evils, pro- 
vided we know enough, and are watchful enough ; 
and, therefore, Cautiousness is not overwhelmed with 
inevitable terrors. It serves merely as a warder to 
excite us to beware of sudden and unexpected dan- 
ger ; it keeps the other faculties at their post, by fur- 
nishing a stimulus to them to observe and trace con- 
sequences, that safety may be insured ; and, when these 
other faculties do their duty in proper form, the im- 
pulses of Cautiousness are not painful, but the reverse : 
they communicate a feeling of internal security and 
satisfaction, expressed by the motto Semper paratus ; 
and hence this faculty appears equally benevolent in 
its design, as the others which we have contemplated. 

Here, then, we perceive a beautiful provision 
made for supporting the activity of, and affording 
legitimate gratification to, the lower propensities. 



76 FACULTIES OP MAN 

These powers are conferred on us clearly to sup- 
port our animal nature, and to place us in harmony 
with the external objects of creation. So far from 
their being injurious or base in themselves, they 
possess the dignity of utility, and the estimable 
quality of being sources of high enjoyment, when 
legitimately indulged. The phrenologist, there- 
fore, would never seek to extirpate, nor to weaken 
them too much. He desires only to see their 
excesses controlled, and their exercise directed in 
accordance with the great institutions and designs 
of the Creator. 

The next class of faculties is that of the moral 
sentiments proper to man. These are the follow- 
ing : 

Benevolence is given, — and sentient and intelligent 
beings are created, whose happiness we are able to 
increase, thereby affording it its scope and delight. It 
is an error to imagine, that creatures in misery are the 
only objects of benevolence, and that it has no function 
but the excitement of pity. It is a wide-spreading 
fountain of generous feeling, desiring for its gratification 
not only the removal of pain, but the maintenance and 
augmentation of positive enjoyment ; and the happier 
it can render its objects, the more complete are its 
satisfaction and delight. Its exercise, like that of 
all the other faculties, is a source of great pleasure to 
the individual himself; and nothing can be conceived 
more admirably adapted for affording it scope, than the 
system of creation exhibited on earth. From the na- 
ture of the human faculties, each individual, without 
injuring himself, has it in his power to confer prodigious 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS- 77 

benefits, or, in other words, to pnur forth the most 
copious streams of benevolence on others, by letfiti- 
mately gratifying their Adhesiveness, Constructive- 
ness, Acquisitiveness, Love of Approbation, Self-Es- 
teem, Cautiousness, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, 
Conscientiousness, and their Knowing and .Reflecting 
Faculties. 

Veneration. — The legitimate object of this faculty is 
the Divine Being ; and I assume here, that phrenology 
enables us to demonstrate the existence of God. The 
very essay in which I am now engaged, is an attempt 
at an exposition of some of his attributes, as manifested 
in this world. If we shall find contrivance, wisdom, 
and benevolence in his works, unchangeableness, and 
no shadow of turning in his laws ; perfect harmony in 
each department of creation, and shall discover that 
the evils which afflict us are much less the direct ob- 
jects of his arrangements than the consequences of 
ignorant neglect of institutions calculated for our en- 
joyment, — then we shall acknowledge in the Divine 
Being an object whom we may love with our whole 
soul, reverence with the deepest emotions of venera- 
tion, and on whom Hope and Conscientiousness may 
repose with a perfect and unhesitating reliance. The 
exercise of this sentiment is in itself a great positive 
enjoyment, when the object is in harmony with all our 
other faculties. Further, its activity disposes us to 
yield obedience to the Creator's laws, the object of 
which is our own happiness ; and hence its exercise 
is in the highest degree provided for. Revelation un- 
folds the character and intentions of God where reason 
cannot penetrate, but its doctrines do not fall within the 
limits prescribed to this Essay. 

Hope is given, — and our understanding, by discovering 
the laws of nature, is enabled to penetrate into the 
future. This sentiment, then, is gratified by the ab- 
solute reliance which Causalit)' warrants us to place 
5 



78 FACULTIES OF MAN 

on the stability and wisdom of the divine arrange- 
ments ; its legitimate exercise, in reference to this 
life, is to give us a vivifying faith, that while we suffer 
evil, we are undergoing a chastisement for having 
neglected the institutions of the Creator, the object of 
which punishment is to force us back into the right 
path. Revelation presents to Hope the certainty of a 
life to come; and directs all our faculties in points of 
Faith. 

Ideality is bestowed, — and not only is external nature 
invested with the most exquisite loveliness, but 
a capacity for moral and intellectual refinement is 
given to us, by which we may rise in the scale of ex- 
cellence, and at every step of our progress reap direct 
enjoyment from this sentiment. Its constant desire is 
for ' something more excellent still :' in its own imme- 
diate impulses it is delightful, and external nature and 
our own faculties respond to its call. 

Wonder prompts to admiration, and desires something new. 
When we contemplate man endowed with intellect to 
discover a Deity and to comprehend his works, we 
cannot doubt of Wonder being provided with objects 
for its intensest exercise ; and when we view him 
placed in ,a world where all old things are constantly 
passing away, and a system of renovation is incessant- 
ly proceeding, we see at once how vast a provision is 
made for the gratification of his desire of novelty, and 
how admirably it is calculated to impel his other facul- 
ties to activity. 

Conscientiousness exists, — and it is necessary to prove 
that all the divine institutions are founded in justice, 
to afford it full satisfaction. This is a point which 
many regard is involved in much obscurity: I shall 
endeavor in this Essay to lift the veil, for to me justice 
appears to flow through every divine institution. 

One difficulty, in regard to Conscientiousness, long ap- 
peared inexplicable ; it was, how to reconcile with Be- 
nevolence the institution by which this faculty visits 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. ?9 

us with remorse, after offences are actually commit- 
ted, instead of arresting our hands by an irresistible veto 
before them, so as to save. us from the perpetration alto- 
gether. The problem is solved by the principle, that hap- 
piness consists in the activity of our faculties, and that the 
arrangement of punishment after the offence is far more 
conducive to activity than the opposite. For example ; 
if we desired to enjoy the highest gratification of Local- 
ity, Form, Coloring, Ideality, and Wonder, in exploring 
anew country, replete with the most exquisite beauties 
of scenery and most captivating natural productions, 
and if we found among these, precipices that gratified 
Ideality in the highest degree, but which endangered 
life when we advanced so near as to fall over them, 
and neglected the law of gravitation, whether would it 
be most bountiful for Providence to send an invisible 
attendant with us, who, whenever we were about to 
approach the brink, should interpose a barrier, and fairly 
cut short our advance, without requiring us to bestow 
one thought upon the subject, and without our knowing 
when to expect it and when not, — or to leave all open, 
but to confer on us, as he has done, eyes fitted to see 
the precipice, faculties to comprehend the law of grav- 
itation, Cautiousness to make us fear the infringement 
of it, and then to leave us to enjoy the scene in perfect 
safety if we used these powers, but to fall over and 
suffer pain by bruises and death if we neglected to ex- 
ercise them ? It is obvious that the latter arrangement 
would give far more scope to our various powers ; and 
if active faculties are the sources of pleasure, as will be 
shown in the next section, tnen it would contribute 
more to our enjoyment than the other. Now, Con- 
scientiousness punishing after the fact, is analogous in 
the moral world, to this arrangement, in the physical. 
If Intellect, Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscien- 
tiousness, do their parts, they will give distinct intima- 
tions of disapprobation before commission of the offence, 
just as Cautiousness will give intimations of danger at 



80 



FACULTIES OF MAN, ETC. 



sight of the cliff; but if these are disregarded, and we 
fall over the moral precipice, remorse follows as the 
punishment, just as pain is the chastisement for tum- 
bling over the physical brink. The object of both in- 
stitutions is to permit and encourage the most vigorous 
and unrestrained exercise of our faculties, in accordance 
with the physical, moral, and intellectual laws of nature, 
and to punish us only when we transgress these limits. 
Firmness is bestowed, — and the other faculties of the mind 
are its objects. It supports and maintains their activity, 
and gives determination to our purposes. 

The next Class of Faculties is the Intellectual. 

The provisions in external nature for the grati- 
fication of the Senses of Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, 
Taste, and Touch, or Feeling, are so obvious that 
it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them. 



Individuality and Eventuality, or the powers of 
observing things that exist, and occurrences, are given, 
and ' all the truths which Natural Philosophy teaches, 
depend upon matter of fact, and that is learned by 
observation and experiment, and never could be dis- 
covered by reasoning at all.' Here, then, is ample 
scope for the exercise of these powers. 

f and the sciences of Geometry, 
Arithmetic, Algebra, Geogra- 



Form. 

Size. 

Weight. 

Locality. 

Order. 

Number. 



phy, Chemistry, Botany, Min- 
eralogy, Zoology, Anatomy, 
and various others, exist, as 
ire bestowed, <j the fie!ds of their exercise . 

The first three sciences are 
almost the entire products of 
these faculties; the others re- 
sult chiefly from them, when 
applied on external objects. 



SOURCES OP HUMAN HAPPINESS 



81 



") f and these, aided by Constructivo- 

Coeoring. I I ness, Form, Locality, Ideality, 

Time, }>are given, { and other faculties, find scope in 

Tune, I Painting, Sculpture, Poetry, and 

l^the other fine arts. 
Language is given, — and our faculties inspire us with 
lively emotions and ideas, which we desire to communi- 
cate, by its means to other individuals. 

and these faculties, aided by In- 
dividuality, Form, Size, Weight, 
Comparison, and others already enumerated, find 

Causality, }- exist, <( ample gratification in Natural Phi- 
Wit, losophy, in Moral, Political, and 

Intellectual Science, and their dif- 
I ferent branches. 

Imitation is bestowed, — and everywhere man is sur- 
rounded by beings and objects whose actions and ap- 
pearances it may benefit him to copy. 



SECT. VI. ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

AND THE CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAIN- 
ING IT. 



Having now given a rapid sketch of the Con- 
stitution of Man, and its relations to external ob- 
jects, we are prepared to inquire into the sources of 
his happiness, and the conditions requisite for 
maintaining it. 

The first and most obvious circumstance which 
attracts attention, is, that all enjoyment must 
necessarily arise from activity of the various sys- 
tems of which the human constitution is composed. 
The bones, muscles, nerves, digestive and respira- 



82 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

tory organs, furnish pleasing sensations, directly 
or indirectly, when exercised in conformity with 
their nature ; and the external senses, and internal 
faculties, when excited, supply the whole remaining 
perceptions and emotions, which, when combined, 
constitute life and rational existence. If these 
were habitually buried in sleep, or constitutionally 
inactive, life, to all purposes of enjoyment, might 
as well be extinct; for existence would be reduced 
to mere vegetation, without Consciousness. 

If, then, Wisdom and Benevolence have been 
employed in constituting Man, we may expect the 
arrangements of creation, in regard to him, to be 
calculated as a leading object to excite his various 
powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. This, 
accordingly, appears to me to be the case ; and the 
fact may be illustrated by a few examples. A cer- 
tain portion of nervous and muscular energy is 
infused by nature into the human body every 
twentyfour hours, and it is delightful to expend this 
vigor. To provide for its expenditure, the stomach 
has been constituted so as to require regularly re- 
turning supplies of food, which can be obtained 
only by nervous and muscular exertion ; the body 
has been created destitute of covering, yet standing 
in need of protection from the elements of Heaven ; 
but this can be easily provided by moderate expen- 
diture of corporeal strength. It is delightful to 
repair exhausted nervous and muscular energy, by 
wholesome aliment ; and the digestive organs have 
been so constituted, as to perform their functions 



CONDITIONS OF MAINTAINING IT. 83 

by successive stages, and to afford us frequent op- 
portunities of enjoying the pleasures of eating. In 
these arrangements, the design of supporting the 
various systems of the body in activity, for the en- 
joyment of the individual, is abundantly obvious. 
A late writer justly remarks, that ' a person of 
feeble texture and indolent habits has the bone 
smooth, thin, and light; but nature, solicitous for 
our safety, in a manner which we could not antici- 
pate, combines with the powerful muscular frame a 
dense and perfect texture of bone, where every 
spine and tubercle is completely developed.' ' As 
the structure of the parts is originally perfected by 
the action of the vessels, the function or operation 
of the part is made the stimulus to those vessels. 
The cuticle on the hand wears away like a glove ; 
but the pressure stimulates the living surface to 
force successive layers of skin under that which is 
wearing, or, as anatomists call it, desquamating ; 
by which they mean, that the cuticle does not 
change at once, but comes off in squamae or scales.' 
Directing our attention to the Mind, we discover 
that Individuality, and the other Perceptive Facul- 
ties, desire, as their means of enjoyment, to know 
existence, and to become acquainted with the quali- 
ties of external objects ; while the Reflecting 
Faculties desire to know their dependences and 
relations. ' There is something,' says an eloquent 
writer, 'positively agreeable to all men, to all, at 
least whose nature is not most grovelling and base, 
in gaining knowledge for its own sake. When you 



84 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

see anything for the first time, you at once derive 
some gratification from the sight being new ; your 
attention is awakened, and you desire to know 
more about it. If it is a piece of workmanship, as 
an instrument, a machine of any kind, you wish to 
know how it is made ; how it works ; and what use 
it is of. If it is an animal, you desire to know where 
it comes from ; how it lives ; and what are its dis- 
positions, and generally, its nature and habits. This 
desire is felt, too, without at all considering that 
the machine or the animal may ever be of the 
least use to yourself practically ; for, in all proba- 
bility, you may never see them again. But you 
feel a curiosity to learn all about them, because 
they are new and unknown to you. You, according- 
ly make inquiries; you feel a gratification in get- 
ting answers to your questions, that is, in receiv- 
ing information, and in knowing more, — in being 
better informed than you were before. If you 
ever happen again to see the same instrument or 
animal, you find it agreeable to recollect having 
seen it before, and to think that you know some- 
thing about it. If you see another instrument or 
animal, in some respects like, but differing in other 
particulars, you find it pleasing to compare them 
together, and to note in what they agree, and in 
what they differ. Now, all this kind of gratifica- 
tion is of a pure and disinterested nature, and has 
no reference to any of the common purposes of 
life ; yet it is a pleasure — an enjoyment. You 
are nothing the richer for it ; you do not gratify 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT . 85 

your palate, or any other bodily appetite ; and yet 
it is so pleasing that you would give something out 
of your pocket to obtain it, and would forego some 
bodily enjoyment for its sake. The pleaurse de- 
rived from science is exactly of the like nature, 
or rather it is the very same.'* This is a correct 
and forcible exposition of the pleasures attending 
the active exercise of our intellectual faculties. 

Supposing the human faculties to have received 
their present constitution, two arrangements may 
be fancied as instituted for the gratification of these 
powers. 1st. Infusing into them at birth intui- 
tive knowledge of every object which they are fitted 
ever to comprehend ; or, 2c%. Constituting them 
only as capacities for gaining knowledge by exer- 
cise and application, and surrounding them with 
objects bearing such relations towards them, that, 
when observed and attended to, they shall afford 
them high gratification ; and, when unobserved 
and neglected, they shall occasion them uneasiness 
and pain ; and the question occurs, Which mode 
would be most conducive to enjoyment? The 
general opinion will be in favor of the first ; but 
the second appears to me to be preferable. If the 
first meal we had eaten had forever prevented the 
recurrence of hunger, it is obvious that all the 
pleasures of satisfying a healthy appetite would 
have been then at an end ; so that this apparent 
bounty would have greatly abridged our enjoyment 

* Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, page 1. 



86 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS j 

In like manner, if, our faculties being constituted 
as at present, intuitive knowledge had been com- 
municated to us, so that, when an hour old, we 
should have been throroughly acquainted with 
every object, quality, and relation that we could 
ever comprehend, all provision for the sustained 
activity of many of our faculties would have been 
done away with. When wealth is acquired, the 
miser's pleasure in it is diminished. He grasps 
after more with increasing avidity. He is supposed 
irrational in doing so ; but he obeys the instinct of 
his nature. What he possesses, no longer satisfies 
Acquisitiveness ; it is like food in the stomach, 
which gave pleasure in eating, and would give pain 
were it withdrawn, but which, when there, is at- 
tended with little positive sensation. The Miser's, 
pleasure arises from the active state of Acquisitive- 
ness, and only the pursuit and obtaining of nezo 
treasures can maintain this state. The same law 
is exemplified in the case of Love of Approbation. 
The gratification which it affords depends on its 
active state, and hence the necessity for new in- 
cense, and higher mounting in the scale of ambition, 
is constantly experienced by its victims. Napoleon, 
in exile, said ' Let us live upon the past :' but he 
found this impossible ; his predominating desires 
originated in Ambition and Self-esteem ; and the 
past did not stimulate these powers, or maintain 
them in constant activity. In like manner, no 
musician, artist, poet, or philosopher, would reckon 
himself happy, however extensive his attainments, 



C ONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 87 

if informed, Now you must stop, and live upon the 
past ; and the reason is still the same. New ideas, 
and new emotions, best excite and maintain in 
activity the faculties of the mind, and activity is 
essential to enjoyment. If these views be correct, 
the consequences of imbuing the mind with intui- 
tive knowledge, would not have been unquestiona- 
bly beneficial. The limits of our acquirements 
would have been reached ; our first step would have 
been our last : every object would have become old 
and familiar ; Hope would have had no object of 
expectation ; Cautiousness no object of fear ; 
Wonder no gratification in novelty; monotony, 
insipidity, and mental satiety, would apparently 
have been the lot of man. 

According to the view now advanced, creation, 
in its present form, is more wisely and benevo- 
lently adapted to our constitution than if intuitive 
instruction had been showered on the mind at 
birth. By the actual arrangement, numerous 
noble faculties are bestowed ; their objects are 
presented to them ; these objects are naturally 
endowed with qualities fitted to benefit and de- 
light us, when their uses and proper applications 
are discovered, and to injure and punish us for 
our ignorance, when their properties are misun- 
derstood or misapplied ; but we are left to find 
out all these qualities and relations by the exer- 
cise of the faculties themselves. In this manner, 
provision is made for ceaseless activity of the 
mental powers, and this constitutes the greatest 



88 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

delight. Wheat, for instance, is produced by the 
earth, and admirably adapted to the nutrition of 
the body ; but it may be rendered more grateful 
to the organ of taste, more salubrious to the sto- 
mach, and more stimulating to the nervous and 
muscular systems, by being stripped of its exter- 
nal skin, ground into flour, and baked by fire into 
bread. Now, the Creator obviously pre-arranged 
all these relations, when he endowed wheat with 
its properties, and the human body with its quali- 
ties and functions. In withholding congenital 
and intuitive knowledge of these qualities and 
mutual relations, but in bestowing faculties of 
Individuality, Form, Coloring, Weight, Construc- 
tiveness, &,c. fitted to find them out ; in rendering 
the exercise of these faculties agreeable ; and in 
leaving man, in this condition, to proceed for 
himself, — he appears to me to have conferred on 
him the highest boon. The earth produces also 
hemlock and foxglove ; and, by the organic law, 
those substances, if taken in certain moderate 
quantities, remove diseases ; if in excess, they 
occasion death : but, again, man's observing fac- 
ulties are fitted, when applied under the guid- 
ance of Cautiousness and Reflection, to make 
this discovery ; and he is left to make it in this 
way, or suffer the consequences of neglect. 

Further, water, when elevated in temperature, 
becomes steam ; and steam expands with prodi- 
gious power ; this power, confined by muscular 
energy, exerted on metal, and directed by intel- 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING I.T. 89 

lect, is capable of being converted into the steam- 
engine, the most efficient, yet humble servant of 
man. All this was clearly pre-arranged by the 
Creator ; and man's faculties were adapted to it ; 
but still we see him left to observe and discover 
the qualities and relations of water for himself. 
This duty, however, must be acknowledged as 
benevolently imposed, the moment we discover 
that the Creator has made the very exercise of 
the faculties pleasurable, and' arranged external 
qualities and relations so beneficially, that, when 
known, they carry a double reward in adding by 
their positive influence to human gratification. 

The Knowing Faculties, as we have seen, ob- 
serve the mere external qualities of bodies, and 
their simpler relations. The Reflecting Faculties 
observe relations also ; but of a higher order. The 
former, for example, discover that the soil is clay 
or gravel ; that it is tough or friable ; that it is wet, 
and that excess of water impedes vegetation ; that 
in one season the crop is large, and in the next 
deficient. The reflecting faculties take cogni- 
zance of the causes of these phenomena. They 
discover the means by which wet soil may be ren- 
dered dry; clay may be pulverized; light soil may 
be invigorated ; and all of them made more pro- 
ductive ; also the relationship of particular soils to 
particular kinds of grain. The inhabitants of a 
country who exert their knowing faculties in ob- 
serving the qualities of their soil, their reflecting 
faculties in discovering its capabilities and rela- 






90 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

tions to water, lime, manures, and the various 
species of grain, and who put forth their muscular 
and nervous energies in accordance with the dic- 
tates of these powers, receive a rich reward in a 
climate improved in salubrity, in an abundant 
supply of food, besides much positive enjoyment 
attending the exercise of the powers themselves. 
Those communities, on the other hand, who neglect 
to use their mental faculties and muscular and ner- 
vous energies, are punished by ague, fever, rheu- 
matism, and a variety of painful affections, arising 
from damp air ; are stinted in food ; and, in wet 
seasons, are brought to the very brink of starvation 
by total failure of their crops. This punishment is 
a benevolent admonition from the Creator, that 
they are neglecting a great duty, and omitting to 
enjoy a great pleasure ; and it will cease as soon 
as they have fairly redeemed the blessings lost by 
their negligence, and obeyed trie laws of their 
being. 

The winds and waves appear, at first sight, to 
present insurmountable obstacles to man leaving 
the island or continent on which he happens to be 
born, and to his holding intercourse with his fel- 
lows in distant climes : But, by observing the rela- 
tions of water to timber, he is able to construct a 
ship ; by observing the influence of the wind on a 
physical body placed in a fluid medium, lie dis- 
covers the use of sails ; and, finally, by the appli- 
cation of his faculties, he has found out the expan- 
sive quality of steam, and traced its relations until 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 91 

he has produced a machine that enables him almost 
to set the roaring tempest at defiance, and to sail 
straight to the stormy north, although its loudest 
and its fiercest blasts oppose. In these instances, 
we perceive external nature admirably adapted to 
support the mental faculties in habitual activity, 
and to reward us for the exercise of them. 

It is objected to this argument, that it involves 
an inconsistency. ' Ignorance, it is said, of the 
natural laws, is necessary to happiness, in order 
that the faculties may obtain exercise in discover- 
ing them ; — nevertheless, happiness is impossible 
till these laws shall have been discovered and 
obeyed. Here, then, it is said, ignorance is repre- 
sented as at once essential to, and incompatible 
with enjoyment. The same objection, however, 
applies to the case of the bee. Gathering honey 
is necessary to its enjoyment ; yet it cannot sub- 
sist and be happy till it has gathered honey, and 
therefore that act is both essential to, and incom- 
patible with its gratification. The fallacy lies in 
losing sight of the natural constitution both of the 
bee and of man. While the bee possesses instinc- 
tive tendencies to roam about the fields and 
flowery meadows, and to exert its energies in labor, 
it is obviously beneficial to it to be furnished with 
motives and opportunities for doing so ; and so it 
is with man to obtain scope for his bodily and 
mental powers. Now, gathering knowledge is to 
the mind of man what gathering honey is to the 
bee. Apparently with the view of effectually 



92 SOURCES OP HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

prompting the bee to seek this pleasure, honey is 
made essential to its subsistence. In like manner, 
and probably with a similar design, knowledge is 
made indispensable to human enjoyment. Com- 
municating intuitive knowledge of the natural laws 
to man, while his present constitution continues, 
would be the exact parallel of gorging the bee with 
honey in midsummer, when its energies are at 
their height. When the bee has completed its 
store, winter benumbs its powers, which resume 
their vigor only when its stock is exhausted, and 
spring returns to afford them scope. No torpor 
resembling that of winter seals up the faculties of 
the human race ; but their ceaseless activity is 
amply provided for. First, The laws of nature, 
compared with the mind of any individual, are of 
boundless extent, so that every one may learn 
something new to the end of the longest life. Sec- 
ondly, By the actual constitution of man, he must 
make use of his acquirements habitually, otherwise 
he will lose them. Thirdly, Every individual of 
the race is born in utter ignorance, and starts from 
zero in the scale of knowledge, so that he has the 
laws to learn for himself. 

These circumstances remove the apparent in- 
consistency. If man had possessed intuitive know- 
ledge of all nature, he could have h<id no scope for 
exercising his faculties in acquiring knowledge, in 
preserving it, or in communicating it. The infant 
would have been as wise as the most revered sage, 
and forgetfulness would have been necessarily ex- 
cluded. 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 93 

Those who object to these views, imagine that 
after the human race has acquired knowledge of 
all the natural laws, if such a result be possible, 
they loill be in the same condition as if they had 
been created with intuitive knowledge ; but this 
does not follow. Although the race should ac- 
quire the knowledge supposed, it is not an inevi- 
table consequence that each individual will 
necessarily enjoy it all ; which, however, would 
follow from intuition. The entire soil of Britain 
belongs to the landed proprietors as a class ; but 
each does hot possess it all ; and hence every one 
has scope for adding to his territories ; with this 
advantage, however, in favor of knowledge, that the 
acquisitions of one do not impoverish another. Fur- 
ther, although the race should have learned all the 
natural laws, their children would not intuitively 
inherit their ideas, and hence the activity of every 
one, as he appears on the stage, would be provided 
for ; whereas, by intuition, every child would be as 
wise as his grandfather, and parental protection, 
filial piety, and all the delights that spring from 
difference in knowledge between youth and age, 
would be excluded. 3d, Using of acquirements, 
is, by the actual state of man, essential to the pre- 
servation as well as the enjoyment of them. By 
intuition all knowledge would be habitually present 
to the mind without effort or consideration. On 
the whole, therefore, it appears that man's nature 
being what it is, the arrangement by which he is 
endowed with powers to acquire knowledge, but 
6 



94 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

left to find it out for himself, is both wise and be- 
nevolent. 

It has been asked, ' But is there no pleasure in 
science but that of discovery? Is there none in 
using the knowledge we have attained 1 Is there 
no pleasure in playing at chess after we know the 
moves V In answer, I observe, that if we know 
beforehand all the moves that our antagonist in- 
tends to make and all our own, which must be the 
case if we know everything by intuition, we shall 
have no pleasure. The pleasure really consists in 
discovering the intentions of our antagonist, and 
in calculating the effects of our own play ; a certain 
degree of ignorance of both of which is indispen- 
sable to gratification. In like manner, it is agreea- 
ble first to discover the natural laws, and then to 
study ' the moves ' that we ought to make, in con- 
sequence of knowing them. So much, then, for 
the sources of human happiness. 

In the second place, To reap enjoyment in the 
greatest quantity, and to maintain it most perma- 
nently, the faculties must be gratified harmoniously : 
In other words, if, ' among the various powers, the 
supremacy belongs to the moral sentiments, then 
the aim of our habitual conduct must be the attain- 
ment of objects suited to gratify them. For ex- 
ample, in pursuing wealth or fame as the leading 
object of existence, full gratification is not afforded 
to Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientious- 
ness, and, consequently, complete satisfaction can- 
not be enjoyed ; whereas, by seeking knowledge, 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 95 

and dedicating life to the welfare of mankind and 
obedience to God, in our several vocations, these 
faculties will be gratified, and wealth, fame, health, 
and other advantages, will flow in their train, so 
that the whole mind will rejoice, and its delights 
will remain permanent as long as the conduct con- 
tinues to be in accordance with the supremacy of 
the moral powers and the laws of external creation. 

Thirdly y To place human happiness on a secure 
basis, the laws of external creation themselves must 
accord with the dictates of the moral sentiments, 
and intellect must be fitted to discover the nature 
and relations of both, and to direct the conduct in 
coincidence with them. 

Much has been written about the extent of hu- 
man ignorance ; but we should discriminate be- 
tween absolute incapacity to know, and mere want 
of information arising from not having used this 
capacity to its full extent. In regard to the first, 
or our capacity to know, it appears probable that, 
in this world, we shall never know the essence, 
beginning, or end of things ; because these are 
points which we have no faculties calculated to 
reach . But the same Creator who made the ex- 
ternal world constituted our faculties, and if we 
have sufficient data for inferring that His intention 
is, that we shall enjoy existence here while pre- 
paring for the ulterior ends of our being ; and if it 
be true that we can be happy here only by becom- 
ing acquainted with the qualities and modes of 
action of our own minds and bodies, with the qual- 



96 SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS; 

ities and modes of action of external objects, and 
with the relations established between them ; in 
short, by becoming thoroughly conversant with 
those natural laws, which, when observed, are pre- 
arranged to contribute to our enjoyment, and which, 
when violated, visit us with suffering, we may 
safely conclude that our mental capacities are wisely 
adapted to the attainment of these objects, when- 
ever we shall do our own duty in bringing them to 
their highest condition of perfection, and in ap- 
plying them in the best manner. 

If we advert for a moment to what we already 
know, we shall see that this conclusion is support- 
ed by high probabilities. Before the mariner's 
compass and astronomy were discovered, nothing 
would seem more utterly beyond the reach of the 
human faculties than traversing the enormous At- 
lantic or Pacific Oceans ; but the moment these 
discoveries were made, how simple did this feat ap- 
pear, and how completely within the scope of hu- 
man ability ! But it became so, not by any ad- 
dition to man's mental capacities, nor by any change 
in the physical world ; but by the easy process of 
applying Individuality, and the other knowing facul- 
ties, to observe, Causality to reflect, and Construc- 
tiveness to build ; in short, to perform their natural 
functions. Who that, forty years ago, regarded the 
small-pox as a scourge, devastating Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America, would not have despaired of 
the human faculties ever discovering an antidote 
against it ? and yet we have lived to see this end 



CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 97 

accomplished by a simple exercise of Individuality 
and reflection, in observing the effects of, and 
applying vaccine inoculation. Nothing appears 
more completely beyond the reach of the human 
intellect, than the cause of volcanoes and earth- 
quakes ; and yet some approach towards its dis- 
covery has recently been made.* 

Sir Isaac Newton observed, that all bodies 
which refracted the rays of light were combustible, 
except one, the diamond, which he found to pos- 
sess this quality, but which he was not able by 
any powers he possessed, to burn. He did not 
conclude, however, from this, that the diamond 
was an exception to the uniformity of nature. He 
inferred, that, as the same Creator made the re- 
fracting bodies which he was able to consume and 
the diamond, and proceeded by uniform laws, the 
diamond would, in all probability, be found to be 
combustible, and that the reason of its resisting his 
power, was ignorance on his part of the proper 
way to produce its conflagration. A century af- 
terwards, chemists made the diamond blaze with 
as much vivacity as Sir Isaac Newton had done a 
wax candle. Let us proceed, then, on an analo- 
gous principle. If the intention of our Creator 
was, that we should enjoy existence while in this 
world, then He knew what was necessary to ena- 
ble us to do so ; and He will not be found to have 
failed in conferring on us powers fitted to accom- 
plish His design, provided we do our duty in 

* Vide Cordier,inEdin. New Phil. Journ. No. VIII. p. 273. 



98 APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO 

developing and applying them. The great mo- 
tive to exertion is the conviction, that increased 
knowledge will furnish us with increased means 
of doing good, — with new proofs of benevolence 
and wisdom in the Great Architect of the Universe. 
The human race may be regarded as only in 
the beginning of its existence. The art of print- 
ing is an invention comparatively but of yester- 
day, and no imagination can yet conceive the ef- 
fects which it is destined to produce. Phrenology 
was wanting to give it full efficacy, especially in 
moral science, in which little progress has been 
made for centuries. Now that this desideratum is 
supplied, may we not hope that the march of im- 
provement will proceed in a rapidly accelerating 
ratio ? 



SECT. VII. — APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS 
TO THE PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 

If a system of living and occupation were to be 
framed for human beings, founded on the exposi- 
tion of their nature, which I have now given, it 
would be something like this. 

1st. So many hours a day would require to be 
dedicated by every individual in health, to the 
exercise of his nervous and muscular systems, in 
labor calculated to give scope to these functions. 
The reward of obeying this requisite of his nature 
would be health, and a joyous animal existence ; 
the punishment of neglect is disease, low spirits, 
and death. 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 99 

2dly. So many hours a day should be spent in 
the sedulous employment of the knowing and re- 
flecting faculties ; in studying the qualities of ex- 
ternal objects, and their relations ; also the nature 
of all animated beings, and their relations ; not 
with the view of accumulating mere abstract and 
barren knowledge, but of enjoying the positive 
pleasure of mental activity, and of turning every 
discovery to account, as a means of increasing 
happiness, or alleviating misery. The leading ob- 
ject should always be to find out the relationship 
of every object to our own nature, organic, ani- 
mal, moral, and intellectual, and to keep that 
relationship habitually in mind, so as to render 
our acquirements directly gratifying to our various 
faculties. The reward of this conduct would be 
an incalculably great increase of pleasure, in the 
very act of acquiring knowledge of the real pro- 
perties of external objects, together with a great 
accession of power in reaping ulterior advantages, 
and in avoiding disagreeable affections. 

3dly. So many hours a day ought to be devo- 
ted to the cultivation and gratification of our mor- 
al sentiments; that is to say, in exercising these 
in harmony with intellect, and especially in ac- 
quiring the habit of admiring, loving, and yield- 
ing obedience to the Creator and his institutions. 
This last object is of vast importance. Intellect 
is barren of practical fruit, however rich it may 
be in knowledge, until it is fired and prompted to 
act by moral sentiment. In my view, knowledge 



100 APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO 

by itself is comparatively worthless and impotent, 
compared with what it becomes when vivified by 
elevated emotions. It is not enough that Intel- 
lect is informed ; the moral faculties must simul- 
taneously cooperate ; yielding obedience to the 
precepts which the intellect recognises to be true. 
One way of cultivating the sentiments would be 
for men to meet and act together, on the fixed 
principles which I am now endeavoring to un- 
fold, and to exercise on each other in mutual in- 
struction, and in united adoration of the great and 
glorious Creator, the several faculties of Benevo- 
lence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and 
Justice. The reward of acting in this manner 
would be a communication of direct and intense 
pleasure to each other ; for I refer to every indi- 
vidual who has ever had the good fortune to pass 
a day or an hour with a really benevolent, pious, 
honest, and intellectual man, whose soul swelled 
with adoration of his Creator, whose intellect was 
replenished with knowledge of his works, and 
whose whole mind was instinct with sympathy for 
human happiness, whether such a day did not af- 
ford him the most pure, elevated, and lasting grati- 
fication he ever enjoyed. Such an exercise, be- 
sides, would invigorate the whole moral and intel- 
lectual powers, and fit them to discover and obey 
the divine institutions. 

Phrenology is highly conducive to this enjoy- 
ment of our moral and intellectual nature. No 
faculty is bad, but, on the contrary each, when 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 101 

properly gratified, is a fountain of pleasure ; in 
short, man possesses no feeling, of the legitimate 
exercise of which an enlightened and ingenuous 
mind need be ashamed. A party of thorough 
practical phrenologists, therefore, meets in the 
perfect knowledge of each other's qualities ; they 
respect these as the gifts of the Creator, and their 
great object is to derive the utmost pleasure from 
their legitimate use, and to avoid every approxi- 
mation to abuse of them. The distinctions of coun- 
try and temperament are broken down by unity of 
principle ; the chilling restraints of Cautiousness, 
Self-esteem, SecreUveness, and Love of Approba- 
tion, which stand as barriers of eternal ice be- 
tween human beings in the ordinary intercourse 
of society, are gently removed ; the directing sway 
is committed to Benevolence, Veneration, Con- 
scientiousness, and Intellect ; and then the higher 
principles of the mind operate with a delightful 
vivacity unknown to persons unacquainted with 
the qualities of human nature. 

Intellect also ought to be regularly exercised in 
arts, science, philosophy, and observation. 

I have said nothing of dedicating hours to the 
direct gratification of the animal powers ; not that 
they should not be exercised, but that full scope 
for their activity will be included in the employ- 
ments already mentioned. In muscular exercises, 
Combativeness, Destructiveness, Constructivness, 
Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, and Love of Approba- 
tion, may all be gratified. In contending with 



102 APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO 

and surmounting physical and moral difficulties, 
Combativeness and Destructiveness obtain vent ; 
in working at a mechanical employment, requir- 
ing the exertion of strength, these two faculties, 
and also Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness, will 
be exercised ; in emulation who shall accomplish 
most good, Self-esteem and Love of Approbati m 
will obtain scope. In the exercise of the moral fa- 
culties, several of these and others of the animal 
propensities, are employed ; Amativeness, Phi- 
loprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, for example, 
acting under the guidance of Benevolence, Vene- 
ration, Conscientiousness, Ideality, and Intellect 
receive direct enjoyment in the domestic circle. 
From proper direction also, and from the supe- 
rior delicacy and refinement imparted to them by 
the higher powers, they do not infringe the moral 
law, and leave no sting or repentance in the mind. 

Finally, a certain portion of time would require 
to be dedicated to taking of food and sleep. 

All systems hitherto practised have been deficient 
in providing for one or more of these branches of 
enjoyment. In the community at Orbiston, form- 
ed on Mr Owen's principles, music, dancing, and 
theatrical entertainments were provided ; but the 
people soon tired of these. They had not corres- 
ponding moral and intellectual instruction. < The 
novelty excited them, but there was nothing sub- 
stantial behind. In common society, very little 
either of rational instruction or amusement is pro- 
vided. The neglect of innocent amusement is a 
great error. 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 103 

If there be truth in these views, they will afford 
answers to two important questions, that have 
puzzled philosophers in regard to the progress of 
human improvement. The first is, Why should 
man have existed so long, and made so small an 
advance in the road to happiness f* If I am right 
in the fundamental proposition, that activity in the 
faculties is synonymous with enjoyment of exist- 
ence, — it follows that it would have been less wise 
and benevolent towards man, constituted as he is, 
to have communicated to him intuitively perfect 
knowledge, thereby leaving his mental powers with 
diminished motives to activity, than to bestow on 
him faculties endowed with high susceptibility of 
action, and to surround him with scenes, objects, 
circumstances, and relations, calculated to main- 
tain them in ceaseless excitement ; although this 
latter arrangement necessarily subjects him to suf- 
fering while ignorant, and renders his first ascent 
in the scale of improvement difficult and slow. It 
is interesting to observe, that, according to this 
view, although the first pair of the human race had 
been created with powerful and well balanced fac- 
ulties, but of the same nature as at present; if they 
were not also intuitively inspired with knowledge 
of the whole creation, and its relations, their first 
movements as individuals would have been retro- 
grade ; that is, as individuals, they would, through 

* In offering a solution of this problem, I do not inquire 
why man has received his present constitution. 



104 APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS TO 

pure want of information, have infringed many 
natural laws, and suffered evil ; while, as parts 
of the race, they would have been decidedly advanc- 
ing ; for every pang they suffered would have led 
them to a new step in knowledge, and prompted 
them to advance towards a much higher condition 
than that which they at first occupied. According 
to the hypothesis now presented, not only is man 
really benefited by the arrangement which leaves him 
to discover the natural laws for himself, although 
during the period of his ignorance, he suffers much 
evil from un acquaintance with them ; but his pro- 
gress towards knowledge and happiness must from 
the very extent of his experience, be actually great- 
er than can at present be conceived. Its extent 
will become more obvious and his experience itself 
more valuable, after he has obtained a view of the 
real theory of his constitution. He will find 
that past miseries have at least exhausted countless 
errors, and he will know how to avoid thousands of 
paths that lead to pain ; in short, he will then dis- 
cover that errors in conduct resemble errors in 
philosophy, in this, that they give additional impor- 
tance and practicability to truth, by the demonstra- 
tion which they afford of the evils attending 
departures from its dictates. The grand sources 
of human suffering at present arise from bodily 
disease and mental distress, and, in the next 
chapter, these will be traced to infringement, 
through ignorance or otherwise, of physical, or- 
ganic, moral, or intellectual laws, which, when 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 105 

expounded, appear in themselves calculated to 
promote the happiness of the race. It may be 
supposed that, according to this view, as know- 
ledge accumulates, enjoyment will decrease ; but 
ample provision is made against this event, by 
withholding intuition from each generation as it 
appears on the stage ; each successive age must 
acquire knowledge for itself; and, provided ideas 
are new, and suited to the faculties, the pleasure 
of acquiring them from instructors, is only second 
to that of discovering them for ourselves ; and, 
probably countless ages may elapse before all the 
facts and relations of nature shall have been ex- 
plored, and the possibility of discovery exhausted. 
If the universe be infinite, knowledge can never be 
complete. 

The second question is, Has man really advanc- 
ed in happiness, in proportion to his increase in 
knowledge? We are apt to entertain erroneous 
notions of the pleasures enjoyed by past ages. 
Fabulists have represented them as peaceful, inno- 
cent, and gay ; but if we look narrowly at the con- 
dition of the savage and barbarian of the present 
day, and recollect that these are the states of all 
individuals previous to the acquisition of knowledge, 
we shall not much or long regret the pretended 
diminution of enjoyment by civilization. Phren- 
ology renders the superiority of the latter condition 
certain, by showing it to be a law of nature, that, 
until the intellect is extensively informed, and the 
moral sentiments assiduously exercised, the animal 



106 APPLICATION OF NATURAL LAWS. 

propensities bear the predominant sway ; and that 
wherever they are supreme, misery is an inevitable 
concomitant. Indeed, the answer to the objection 
that happiness has not increased with knowledge, 
appears to me to be found in the fact, that un^il 
phrenology was discovered, the nature of man was 
not scientifically known ; and in consequence, that 
not one of his institutions, civil or domestic, was 
correctly founded on the principle of the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments, or in accordance with the 
other laws of his constitution. Owing to the same 
cause, also, much of his knowledge has necessarily 
remained partial, and inapplicable to use ; but 
after this science shall have been appreciated and 
applied, clouds of darkness, accumulated through 
long ages that are past, may be expected to roll 
away, as if touched by the rays of the meridian sun, 
and with them many of the miseries that attend 
total ignorance or imperfect information.* 

* Readers who are strangers to phrenology, and the evi- 
dence on which it rests, ma)' regard the observations in the 
text as extravagant and enthusiastic ; but I respectfully re- 
mind them, that, while they judge in comparative ignorance, 
it has been my endeavor to subject it to the severest scrutiny. 
Having found its proofs irrefragable, and being convinced 
of its importance, I solicit their indulgence in speaking of it 
as it appears to my own mind. 



CHAPTER III. 

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND 
REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENTS OF THE LAWS OF 
NATURE ? 

In the present chapter, I propose to inquire into 
some of the evils that have afflicted the human 
race ; also whether they have proceeded from 
abuses of institutions benevolent and wise in them- 
selves, and calculated, when observed, to promote 
the happiness of man, or from a defective or vicious 
constitution of nature, which he can neither remedy 
nor improve. 

SECT. I. CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGE- 
MENTS OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS. 

The proper way of viewing the Creator's insti- 
tutions, is to look, first, to their uses, and to the 
advantages that flow from observance of them ; 
and, secondly, to their abuses, and the evils con- 
sequent thereon. 

In Chapter II., some of the benefits conferred 
on man, by the law of gravitation, are enumera- 
ted ; and I may here advert to the evils originating 
from that law, when human conduct is in opposi- 



108 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

tion to it. For example, men are liable to fall from 
horses, carriages, stairs, precipices, roofs, chim- 
neys, ladders, masts, to slip in the street, &-c, by 
which accidents life is frequently altogether ex- 
tinguished, or rendered miserable from lameness 
and pain ; and the question arises, Is human na- 
ture provided with any means of protection against 
these evils, at all equal to their frequency and 
extent. 

The lower animals are equally subject to this 
law ; and the Creator has bestowed on them exter- 
nal senses, nerves, muscles, bones, an instinctive 
sense of equilibrium, the sense of danger, or cau- 
tiousness, and other faculties, to place them in 
accordance with it. These appear to afford suffi- 
cient protection to animals placed in all ordinary 
circumstances ; for we very rarely discover any of 
them, in their natural condition, killed or muti- 
lated by accidents referable to gravitation. Where 
their mode of life exposes them to extraordinary 
danger from this law, they are provided with addi- 
tional securities. The monkey, which climbs 
trees, enjoys great muscular energy in its legs, 
claws, and tail, far surpassing, in proportion to its 
gravitating tendency, or its bulk and weight, what 
is bestowed on the legs and arms of man ; so that, 
by means of them, it springs from branch to 
branch, in nearly complete security against the 
law in question. The goat, which browses on the 
brinks of precipices, has received a hoof and legs, 
that give precision and stability to its steps. Birds, 



PHYSICAL LAWS. 109 

which are destined to sleep on branches of trees, 
are provided with a muscle passing over the joints 
of each leg, and stretching down to the foot, which, 
being pressed by their weight, produces a propor- 
tionate contraction of their claws, so as to make 
them cling the fasterj the greater their liability to 
fall. The fly, which walks and sleeps on perpen- 
dicular walls, and the ceilings of rooms, has a hol- 
low in its foot, from which it expels the air, and 
the pressure of the atmosphere on the outside of 
the foot holds it fast to the object on which the 
inside is placed. The sea-horse, which is destined 
to climb up the sides of ice-hills, is provided with 
a similar apparatus. The camel, whose native 
region is the sandy deserts of the torrid zone, has 
broad-spreading hooves to support it on the loose 
soil. Fishes are furnished with air bladders, by 
dilating and contracting of which they can accom- 
modate themselves with perfect precision to the 
law of gravitation. 

In these instances, the lower animals, under the 
sole guidance of their instincts, appear to be placed 
admirably in harmony with gravitation, and guar- 
anteed against its infringement. Is Man, then, 
less an object of love with the Creator? Is he 
alone left exposed to the evils that spring inevita- 
bly from its neglect? His means of protection are 
different, but when understood and applied, they 
will probably be found not less complete. Man, 
as well as the lower animals, has received bones, 
7 



110 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

muscles, nerves, an instinct of equilibrium,* and 
organs of Cautiousness ; but not in equal perfec- 
tion, in proportion to his figure, size, and weight, 
with those bestowed on them : — The difference, 
however, is far more than compensated by other 
organs, particularly those of Constructiveness and 
Reflection, in which he greatly surpasses them. 
Keeping in view that the external world, in regard 
to man, is arranged on the principle of supremacy 
in moral sentiments and intellect, we shall probably 
find, that the calamities suffered by him from the 
law of gravitation, are referable to predominance 
of the animal propensities, or to neglect of proper 
exercise of his intellectual powers. For example, 
when coaches break down, ships sink, men fall 
from ladders, &c, how generally may the cause be 
traced to decay in the vehicle, the vessel, or ladder, 
which a predominating Acquisitiveness alone pre- 
vented from being repaired ; or when men fall 
from houses, scaffolds, or slip on the street, &,c, 
how frequently should we find their muscular, ner- 
vous, and mental energies, impaired by preceding 
debaucheries ; in other words, by predominance of 
the animal faculties, which, for the time, dimin- 
ished their natural means of accommodating them- 
selves to the law from which they suffer. Or, 
again, the slater, in using a ladder, assists himself 
by Constructiveness and Reflection ; but, in walk- 
ing along the ridge of a house, or standing on a 
chimney, he takes no aid from these faculties ; he 
* Vide Essay on Weight, Phren. Journ. vol. ii. p. 412. 



INFRINGEMENTS OF PHYSICAL LAWS. Ill 

trusts to the mere instinctive power of equilibrium, 
in which he is inferior to the lower animals, and, 
in so doing, clearly violates the law of his nature, 
that requires him to use reflection, where instinct 
is deficient. Causality and Oonstructiveness could 
invent means by which, if he slipped from a roof 
or chimney, his fall might be arrested. A small 
chain, for instance, attached by one end to a girdle 
round his body, and the other end fastened by a 
hook and eye to the roof, might leave him at 
liberty to move about, and break his fall, in case 
he slipped. How frequently, too, do these acci- 
dents happen, after disturbance of the faculties 
and corporeal functions by intoxication? 

The objection will probably occur, that in the 
gross condition in which the mental powers exist, 
the great body of mankind are incapable of exert- 
ing habitually that degree of moral and intellec- 
tual energy, which is indispensable to observance 
of the natural laws ; and that, therefore, they are, 
in point of fact, less fortunate, than the lower ani- 
mals. I admit, that, at present, this representa- 
tion is to a considerable extent just; but nowhere 
do I perceive the human powers exercised and 
instructed, in a degree at all approaching to their 
limits. Let any person recollect of how much 
greater capacity for enjoyment and security from 
danger he has been conscious, at a particular 
time, when his whole mind was filled with, and 
excited by, some mighty interest, not only allied 
to, but founded in, morality and intellect, than in 



112 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

that languid condition which accompanies the 
absence of elevated and ennobling motives, and 
he may form some idea of what man is capable of 
reaching when his powers shall have been culti- 
vated to the extent of their capacity. At the pre- 
sent moment, no class of society is systematically 
instructed in the constitution of their own minds 
and bodies, in the relations of these to external 
objects, in the nature of these objects, in the na- 
tural supremacy of the moral sentiments, in the 
principle that activity in the faculties is the only 
source of pleasure, and that the higher the powers, 
the more intense the delight; and, if such views 
be to the mind, what light is to the eyes, air to the 
lungs, and food to the stomach, there is no won- 
der that a mass of inert mentality, if I- may use 
such a word, should everywhere exist around us, 
and that countless evils should spring from its con- 
tinuance in this condition. If active moral and 
intellectual faculties are the natural fountains of 
enjoyment, and the external world is created with 
reference to this state ; it is as obvious that misery 
must result from animal supremacy and intellec- 
tual torpidity, as that flame, which is constituted 
to burn only when supplied with oxygen, must inev- 
itably become extinct, when exposed to carbonic 
acid gas. Finally, if the arrangement by which 
man is left to discover and obey the laws of his 
own nature, and of the physical world, be more 
conducive to activity, than intuitive knowledge, the 
calamities now contemplated appear to be instituted 



INFRINGEMENTS OF FHYSICAL LAWS. 113 

to force him to his duty ; and his duty, when un- 
derstood, will coustitute his delight. 

While, therefore, we lament the fate of individ- 
ual victims to the law of gravitation, we cannot 
condemn that law itself. If it were suspended, 
to save men from the effects of negligence, not 
only would the proud creations of human skill tot- 
ter to their base, and the human body rise from 
the earth, and hang midway in the air, but our 
highest enjoyments would be terminated, and our 
faculties become positively useless, by being de- 
prived of their field of exertion. Causality, for 
instance, teaches that similar causes will always, 
cceteris paribus, produce similar effects ; and, if 
the physical laws were suspended or varied, to ac- 
commodate man's negligence or folly, it is obvious 
that this faculty would be without an object, and 
that no definite course of action could be entered 
upon with confidence in the result. If, then, this 
view of the constitution of nature were kept steadily 
in view, the occurrence of one accident of this 
kind would suggest to Reflection means to prevent 
others. 

Similar illustrations and commentaries might be 
given, in regard to the other physical laws to which 
man is subject ; but the object of the present 
Essay being merely to evolve principles, I confine 
myself to gravitation, as the most obvious and best 
understood. 

I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise 
of intellect, man may absolutely guarantee him- 



114 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

self against all accidents ; but only that the more 
ignorant and careless he is, the more he will suffer, 
and the more intelligent and vigilant, the less ; 
and that 1 can perceive no limits to this rule. 
The law of most civilized countries recognizes 
this principle, and subjects owners of ships, 
coaches, and other vehicles, in damages arising 
from gross infringements of the physical laws. It 
is unquestionable that the enforcement of this 
liability has increased security in travelling in no 
trifling degree. 

SECT. IT. ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND, 

FIIOM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 

An organized being, I have said, is one whfch 
derives its existence from a previously existing or- 
ganized being, which subsists on food, grows, at- 
tains maturity, decays and dies. Whatever the 
ultimate object of the Creator, in constituting or- 
ganized beings, may be, it will scarcely be denied, 
that part of His design is, that they should enjoy 
their existence here ; and, if so, every particular 
part of their system will be found conducive in 
its intention to this end. The first. law, then, that 
must be obeyed, to render an organized being per- 
fect in its kind, is, that the germ from which it 
springs shall be complete in all its parts, and sound 
in its whole constitution ; the second is, that the 
moment it is ushered into life, and as long as it 
continues to live, it shall be supplied with food, 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 115 

light, air, and every physical aliment necessary 
for its support ; and the third law is, that it shall 
duly exercise its functions. When all these laws 
are obeyed, the being should enjoy pleasure from 
its organized frame, if its Creator is benevolent; 
and its constitution should be so adapted to its 
circumstances, as to admit of obedience to them, 
if its Creator is wise and powerful. Is there, then, 
no such phenomenon on earth, as a human being 
existing in full possession of organic vigor, from 
birth till advanced age, when the organized system 
is fairly worn out? Numberless examples of this 
kind have occurred, and they show to demonstra- 
tion, that the corporeal frame of man is so consti- 
tuted, as to admit the possibility of his enjoying 
organic health and vigor, during the whole period 
of a long life. In the life of Captain Cook it is 
mentioned, that ' one circumstance peculiarly 
worthy of notice is, the perfect and uninterrupted 
health of the inhabitants of New Zealand. In all 
the visits made to their towns, where old and young, 
men and women, crowded about our voyagers, 
they never observed a single person who appeared 
to have any bodily complaint ; nor among the 
numbers that were seen naked, was once perceived 
the slightest eruption upon the skin, or least mark 
which indicated that such an eruption had formerly 
existed. Another proof of the health of these 
people is the facility with which the wounds they 
at any time receive are healed. In the man who 
had been shot with the musket ball through the 



11(5 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

fleshy part of his arm, the wound seemed to be so 
well digested, and in so fair a way of being per- 
fectly healed, that if Mr Cook had not known that 
no application had been made to it, he declared 
that he should certainly have inquired, with a very 
interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and 
surgical art of the country. An additional evi- 
dence of human nature's being untainted with 
disease in New Zealand, is the great number of 
old men with which it abounds. Many of them, 
by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be 
very ancient, and yet none of them were decrepit. 
Although they were not equal to the young in 
muscular strength, they did not come in the least 
behind them with regard to cheerfulness and viva- 
city. Water, as far as our navigators could dis- 
cover, is the universal and only liquor of the New 7 
Zealanders. It is greatly to be wished that their 
happiness in this respect may never be destroyed 
by such a connexion with the European nations, as 
shall introduce that fondness for spirituous liquors 
which hath been so fatal to the Indians of North 
America.' — Kippis' Life of Captain Cook. Dub- 
lin, 1788, p. 100. 

Now, as a natural law never admits of an ex- 
ception ; for example, as no man ever sees without 
eyes, or digests without a stomach, we are entitled 
to say, that the best condition in which an organ- 
ized being has ever been found, is fairly within 
the capabilities of the race. ■ A human being, vig- 
orous and healthy from the cradle to the grave. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 117 

could no more exist, unless the natural constitu- 
tion of his organs permitted it, of design, than vis- 
ion could exist without eyes. Health and vigor 
cannot result from infringement of the organic 
laws ; for then pain and disease would be the ob- 
jects of these laws, and beneficence, wisdom, and 
power, could never be ascribed to the Creator, 
who had established them. Let us hold, then, 
that the organized system of man, in itself — admits 
of the possibility of health, vigor, and organic 
enjoyment, during the full period of life ; and pro- 
ceed to inquire into the causes why these advan- 
tages are not universal. 

One organic law, is, that the germ of the infant 
being must be complete in all its parts, and per- 
fectly sound in its condition, as an indispensable 
requisite to its vigorous developement, and full en- 
joyment of existence. If the corn that is sown is 
weak, wasted, and damaged, the plants that spring 
from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy decay. 
The same law holds in the animal kingdom ; and 
I would ask, has it hitherto been observed by man ? 
It is notorious that it has not. Indeed, its exist- 
ence has been either altogether unknown, or in a 
very high degree disregarded by human beings. 
The feeble, the sickly, the exhausted with age, 
and the incompletely developed, through extreme 
youth, marry, and, without the least compunction 
regarding the organization which they shall trans- 
mit to their offspring, send into the world misera- 
ble beings, the very rudiments of whose existence 



118 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

are tainted with disease. If we trace such conduct 
to its source, we shall find it to originate either in 
animal propensity, intellectual ignorance, or more 
frequently in both. The inspiring motives are 
generally mere sensual appetite, avarice, or ambi- 
tion, operating in the absence of all just concep- 
tions of the impending evils. The punishment of 
this offence is debility and pain, transmitted to the 
children, and reflected back in anxiety and sorrow 
on the parents. Still the great point to be kept 
in view, is, that these miseries are not legitimate 
consequences of observance of the organic laws, 
but the direct chastisement of their infringement. 
These laws are unbending, and admit of no ex- 
ception ; they must be fulfilled, or the penalties 
of disobedience will follow. On this subject pro- 
found ignorance reigns in society. From such 
observations as I have been able to make, I am 
convinced that the union of certain tempera- 
ments and combinations of mental organs in the 
parents, are highly conducive to health, talent, 
and morality in the offspring, and vice versa, and 
that these conditions may be discovered and 
taught with far greater certainty, facility, and 
advantage, than is generally imagined. It will 
be time enough to conclude that men are natur- 
ally incapable of obedience to the organic laws, 
after their intellects have been instructed, their 
moral sentiments trained to observance of the 
Creator's natural institutions, as at once their 
duty, their interest, and a grand source of their 
happiness ; and they have continued to rebel. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 119 

A second organic law regards nutriment, which 
must be supplied of a suitable kind, and in due 
quantity. This law requires also free air, light, 
cleanliness, and attention to every physical ar- 
rangement by which the functions of the body 
may be favored or impaired. Have mankind, 
then, obeyed or neglected this institution? I 
need scarcely answer the question. To be able 
to obey institutions, we must first know them. 
Before we can know the organic constitution of 
our body, we must study that constitution, and 
the study of the human constitution is anatomy 
and physiology. Before we can be acquainted 
with its relations to external objects, we must 
learn the existence and qualities of these objects, 
(unfolded by chemistry, natural history, and nat- 
ural philosophy,) and compare them with the con- 
stitution of the body. When we have fulfilled 
these conditions, we shall be better able to dis- 
cover the laws which the Creator has instituted 
in regard to our organic system. It will be said, 
however, that such studies are impracticable to 
the great bulk of mankind, and, besides, do not 
appear much to benefit those who pursue them. 
They are impracticable only while mankind prefer 
founding their public and private institutions on 
the basis of the propensities, instead of that of the 
sentiments. I have mentioned, that exercise of the 
nervous and muscular systems is required of all 
the race by the Creator's fiat, that if ally who are 
capable, would obey this law, a moderate extent 



120 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

of exertion, agreeable and salubrious in itself, 
would suffice to supply our wants, and to sur- 
round us with every beneficial luxury ; and that a 
large portion of unemployed time would remain. 
The Creator has bestowed on us Knowing Facul- 
ties, fitted to explore the facts of these sciences, 
Reflecting Faculties to trace their relations, and 
Moral Sentiments calculated to feel interest in 
such investigations, and to lead us to reverence 
and obey the laws which they unfold ; and, finally, 
he has made this occupation, when entered upon 
with the view of tracing His power and wisdom 
in the subjects of our studies, and of obeying His 
institutions, the most delightful and invigorating 
of all vocations. In place, then, of such a course 
of education being impracticable, every arrange- 
ment of the Creator appears to be prepared in 
direct anticipation of its actual accomplishment. 

The second objection, that those who study 
these sciences are not more healthy and happy, as 
organized beings, than those who neglect them, 
admits also of an easy answer. Parts of these 
sciences are taught to a few individuals, whose 
main design in studying them is to apply them as 
means of acquiring wealth and fame ; but they 
have nowhere been taught as connected parts of 
a great system of natural arrangements, fraught 
with the highest influences on human enjoyment; 
and in no instance have the intellect and senti- 
ments been systematically directed to the natural 
laws, as the grand fountains of happiness and 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 121 

misery to the race, and trained to observe and 
obey them as the Creator's institutions. 

A third organic law, is, that all our functions 
shall be duly exercised ; and is this law observed 
by mankind ? Many persons are able, from ex- 
perience, to attest the severity of the punishment 
that follows from neglecting to exercise the ner- 
vous and muscular systems, in the lassitude, indi- 
gestion, irritability, debility, and general uneasi- 
ness that attend a sedentary and inactive life. But 
the penalties that attach to neglect of exercising 
the brain are much less known, and, therefore, I 
shall notice them more at length. How often have 
we heard the question asked, What is the use of 
education? The answer might be illustrated by 
explaining to the inquirer the nature and objects 
of the various organs of the body, such as the 
limbs, lungs, eyes, and then asking him if he could 
perceive any advantage to a being so constituted, 
in obtaining access to earth, air, and light. He 
would, at once, declare, that they were obviously 
of the very highest utility to him, for they were 
the only conceivable objects, by means of which 
these organs could obtain scope for action, which 
action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. 
To those, then, who know the constitution of the 
intellectual, and moral powers of man, I need only 
say, that the objects introduced to the mind by 
education, bear the same relation to them that the 
physical elements of nature bear to the nerves and 
muscles; they afford them scope for action, and 



122 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

yield them delight. The meaning which is com- 
monly attached to the word use in such cases, is 
how much money, influence, or consideration, will 
education bring ; these being the only objects of 
strong desire with which uncultivated minds are 
acquainted; and they do not perceive in what way 
education can greatly gratify such propensities. 
But the moment the mind is opened to the per- 
ception of its own constitution and to the natural 
laws, the great advantage of moral and intellec- 
tual cultivation, as a means of exercising the 
faculties, and of directing the conduct in obedience 
to these laws, becomes apparent. 

But there is an additional benefit arising from 
healthy activity of brain, which is little known. 
The brain is the fountain of nervous energy to 
the whole body, and different modifications of 
that energy appear to take place, according to the 
mode in which the faculties and organs are affected. 
For example, when misfortune and disgrace impend 
over us, the organs of Cautiousness, Self-esteem, 
Love of Approbation, &-c, are painfully excited ; 
and then they transmit an impaired or a positively 
noxious nervous influence to the heart, stomach, 
intestines, and thence to the rest of the body ; the 
pulse becomes feeble and irregular, digestion is 
deranged, and the whole corporeal frame wastes. 
When, on the other hand, the cerebral organs are 
agreeably affected, a benign and vivifying nervous 
influence pervades the frame, and all the functions 
of the body are performed with more pleasure and 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 123 

completeness. Now, it is a law, that the quantum 
of nervous energy increases with the number of 
cerebral organs roused to activity. In the retreat 
of the French from Moscow, for example, when no 
enemy was near, the soldiers became depressed in 
courage, and enfeebled in body, they ne;irly sunk 
to the earth through exhaustion and cold ; but no 
sooner did the fire of the Russian guns sound in 
their ears, or the gleam of their bayonets flash in 
their eyes, than new life seemed to pervade them. 
They wielded powerfully the arms, which a few 
moments before, they could scarcely carry or trail 
on the ground. No sooner, however, was the 
enemy repulsed, than their feebleness returned. 
The theory of this is, that the approach of the 
combat called into activity a variety of additional 
faculties; these sent new energy through every 
nerve, and while their vivacity was maintained by 
the external stimulus, they rendered the soldiers 
strong beyond their merely physical condition. 
Many persons have probably experienced the opera- 
tion of the same principle. When sitting feeble 
and listless by the fire, we have heard of an acci- 
dent having occurred to some beloved friend, who 
required our instantaneous aid, or an unexpected 
visitor has arrived in whom our affections were 
bound up, in an instant our lassitude was gone, 
and we moved with an alertness and animation 
that seemed surprising to ourselves, The cause 
was the same ; these events roused Adhesiveness, 
Benevolence, Love of Approbation, Intellect, and 



124 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

a variety of faculties, which were previously dor- 
mant, and their influence invigorated the limbs. 
Dr Sparmann, in his Voyage to the Cape, men- 
tions, that ' there was now again a great scarcity 
of* meat in the wagon ; for which reason my 
Hottentots began to grumble, and reminded me 
that we ought not to waste so much of our time in 
looking after insects and plants, but give a better 
look out after the game. At the same time, they 
pointed to a neighboring dale overrun with wood, 
at the upper edge of which, at the distance of 
about a mile and a quarter from the spot where we 
then were, they had seen several buffaloes. Accor- 
dingly, we went thither ; but though our fatigue 
was lessened by our Hottentots carrying our guns 
for us up a hill, yet we were quite out of breath, 
and overcome by the sun, before we got up to it. 
Yet, what even now appears to me a matter of 
wonder is, that as soon as we got a glimpse of the 
game, all this languor left us in an instant. In 
fact, we each of us strove to fire before the other, 
so that we seemed entirely to have lost sight of all 
prudence and caution.' — 'In the mean time, our 
temerity, which chiefly proceeded from hurry and 
ignorance, was considered by the Hottentots as a 
proof of spirit and intrepidity hardly to be equal- 
led.' 

It is a part of the same law that the more agree- 
able the mental stimulus, the more benign is the 
nervous influence transmitted to the body. 

If we imagine a man or woman, who has receiv- 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 125 

ed from nature a large and tolerably active brain, 
but who has not enjoyed the advantages of a sci- 
entific or extensive education, so as to feel an in- 
terest in moral and intellectual pursuits for their 
own sake, and who, from possessing wealth suffi- 
cient to remove the necessity for labor, is engaged 
in no profession, we shall find a perfect victim to 
infringement of the natural laws. The individual 
ignorant of these laws, will, in all probability, 
neglect nervous and muscular exercise, and suffer 
the miseries arising from impeded circulation and 
impaired digestion ; in entire want of every ob- 
ject on which the energy of his brain might be 
expended, its stimulating influence on the body 
will be withheld, and the effects of muscular in- 
activity tenfold aggravated ; all the functions will, 
in consequence, become enfeebled ; lassitude, un- 
easiness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, will arise, 
and life, in short, will become a mere endurance 
of punishment for infringement of institutions, cal- 
culated, in themselves, to -promote happiness and 
afford delight, when known and obeyed. This fate 
frequently overtakes uneducated females, whose 
early days have been occupied with business, or 
the cares of a family, but which .occupations have 
ceased before old age had diminished corporeal 
vigor ; it overtakes men also, who, uneducated, 
retire from active business in the prime of life. In 
some instances, these evils accumulate to such a 
degree that the brain itself gives way, its functions 
■ become deranged, and insanity is the result. 
8 



126 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

It is worthy of remark, that the more elevated 
the objects of our study, the higher in the scale 
are the mental organs which are exercised, and the 
higher the organs the more pure and intense is the 
pleasure; and hence, a vivacious and regularly 
supported excitement of the moral sentiments and 
intellect, is, by the organic law, highly favorable to 
health and corporeal vigor. In the fact of a liv- 
ing animal being able to retain life in an oven that 
will bake dead flesh, we see an illustration of the 
organic law rising above the purely physical ; and, 
in the circumstance of the moral and intellectual 
organs transmitting the most favorable nervous in- 
fluence to the whole bodily system, we have an 
example of the moral and intellectual law rising 
higher than the mere organic. 

No person after having his intellect and senti- 
ments imbued with a perception of, and belief in, 
the natural laws, as now explained, can possibly 
desire idleness, as a source of pleasure ; nor can 
he possibly regard muscular exertion and mental 
activity, when not carried to excess, as anything 
else than enjoyments kindly vouchsafed to him by 
the benevolence of the Creator. The notion that 
moderate labor and mental exertion are evils, can 
originate only from ignorance, or from viewing the 
effects of over-exhaustion as the result of the natu- 
ral law, and not as the punishment for infringement 
of it. 

If, then, we sedulously inquire, in each particu- 
lar instance, into the cause of the sickness, pain, 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LA WS. 127 

premature death, and general derangement of the 
corporeal frame of man, which we see around us, 
and endeavor to discover whether it has origina- 
ted in obedience to the physical and organic laws, 
or sprung from infringement of them, we shall be 
able to .form some estimate how far bodily suffer- 
ing is justly attributable to imperfections of nature, 
and how far to our own ignorance and neglect of 
divine institutions. 

The foregoing principles being of much prac- 
tical importance, may, with propriety, be eluci- 
dated by a few cases of actual occurrence. Two 
or three centuries ago, various cities in Europe 
were depopulated by the plague, and, in particular, 
London was visited by an awful mortality from this 
cause, in the reign of Charles the Second. The 
people of that age attributed this scourge to the 
inscrutable decrees of Providence, and some to 
the magnitude of the nation's moral iniquities. 
According to the views now presented, it must 
have arisen from infringement of the organic laws, 
and been intended to enforce stricter obedience to 
them in future. According to this view, there was 
nothing inscrutable in its causes or objects, which, 
when clearly analysed, appear to have had no di- 
rect reference to the moral condition of the peo- 
ple : I say direct reference to the moral condition 
of the people, because it would be easy to show, 
that the physical, organic, and all the other natural 
laws, are connected indirectly, and constituted in 
harmony, with the moral law ; and that infringe- 



128 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ment of the one often leads to disobedience to ano- 
ther, and brings a double punishment on the offen- 
der. But, in the mean time, I observe that the 
facts recorded in history exactly correspond with 
the theory now propounded. The streets of Lon- 
don were excessively narrow, the habits of the 
people dirty, and no adequate provision was made 
for removing the filth unavoidably produced by a 
dense population. The great fire in that city, 
which happened soon after the pestilence, afforded 
an opportunity of remedying, in some degree, the 
narrowness of the streets ; and the habits of increas- 
ing cleanliness abated the filth ; these changes 
brought the people into a closer obedience to the 
organic laws, and no plague has since returned. 
Again, till very lately, thousands of children died 
yearly of the small-pox, but in our day, vaccine 
inoculation saves ninetynine out of a hundred, who, 
under the old system, would have died. The 
theory of its operation is not known, but we may 
rest assured, that it places the system more in ac- 
cordance with the organic laws, than in the cases 
where death ensued. A gentleman, who died 
about ten years ago at an advanced period of life, 
told me, that six miles west from Edinburgh, the 
country was so unhealthy in his youth, that every 
spring the farmers and their servants were seized 
with fever and ague, and required regularly to un- 
dergo bleeding, and a course of medicine, to pre- 
vent attacks, or restore them from their effects. 
At the time, these visitations were believed to be 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 129 

sent by Providence, and to be inherent in the con- 
stitution of things ; after, however, said my in- 
formant, an improved system of agriculture and 
draining was established, and vast pools of stagnant 
water formerly left between the ridges of the field 
were removed, dunghills carried to a distance from 
the houses, and the houses themselves made more 
spacious and commodious, every symptom of ague 
and marsh-fever disappeared from the district, and 
it became highly salubrious. In other words, as 
soon as the gross infringement of the organic laws 
was abated by a more active exertion of the mus- 
cular and intellectual powers of man, the punish- 
ment ceased. In like manner, how many calami- 
ties occurred in coalpits, in consequence of in- 
fringement of a physical law, viz. by introducing 
lighted candles and lamps into places filled with 
hydrogen gas, that had emanated from seams of 
coal, and which exploded, scorched, and suffocated 
the men and animals within its reach, until Sir 
Humphrey Davy discovered that the Creator had 
established such a relation betwixt flame, wire- 
gauze, and hydrogen gas, that by surrounding the 
flame with gauze, its power of exploding hydrogen 
was counteracted. By the simple application of a 
covering of wire-gauze, put over and around the 
flame, it is prevented from igniting gas beyond it, 
and colliers are now able to carry, with safety, 
lighted lamps into places highly impregnated with 
inflammable air. I have been informed, that the 
accidents from explosion, which still occasionally 



130 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

occur in coal mines, arise from neglecting to keep 
the lamps in perfect condition. 

It is needless to multiply examples in support of 
the proposition, that the organized system of man, 
in itself, admits of a healthy existence from infancy 
to old age, provided its germ has been healthy, and 
its subsequent condition has been uniformly in har- 
mony with the physical and organic laws; but it 
has been objected, that although the human facul- 
ties may perhaps be adequate to discover these 
laws, and to record them in books, yet they are total- 
ly incapable of retaining them in the memory, and of 
formally applying them in every act of life. If, it is 
said, we could not move a step without calculating 
and adjusting the body to the law of gravitation, and 
could never eat a meal without a formal rehearsal 
of the organic laws, life would become oppressed 
by the pedantry of knowledge, and rendered mise- 
rable by petty observances and trivial details. The 
answer to this is, that all our faculties are adapted 
by the Creator to the external world, and act in- 
stinctively when their objects are placed in the 
proper light before them. For example, in walk- 
ing on a foot-path in the country during day, we 
are not conscious, in adjusting our steps to the 
inequalities of the surface, of being overburdened 
by mental calculation. In fact, we perform this 
adjustment with so little trouble, that we are not 
aware of having made any particular mental or 
muscular effort. But, on returning at night, when 
we cannot see, we stumble, and discover, for the 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 131 

first time, how important a duty our faculties had 
been performing during day, without our having 
adverted to their labors. Now, the simple medium 
of light is sufficient to bring clearly before our eyes 
the inequalities of ground ; but to make the mind 
equally familiar with the nature of the countless 
objects, and their relations, which abound in ex- 
ternal nature, an intellectual light is necessary, 
which can be struck out only by exercising and 
applying the knowing and reflecting faculties ; but 
the moment that light is obtained, and the qualities 
and relationships in question are perceived by its 
means, the faculties, so long as the light lasts, will 
act instinctively in adapting our conduct to the 
nature of the objects, just as in accommodating 
our movements to the unequal surface of the ground. 
It is no more necessary for us to go through a course 
of physical, botanical, and chemical reasoning, 
before we are able to abstain from eating hemlock, 
after its properties are known, than it is to go 
through a course of mathematical demonstration, 
before lifting the one foot higher than the other, in 
ascending a stair. At present, physical and poli- 
tical science, morals and religion, are not taught 
as parts of one connected system ; nor are the re- 
lations between them and the constitution of man 
pointed out to the world. In consequence, theoret- 
ical knowledge and practice are often widely sepa- 
rated. Some of the advantages of the scientific 
education now recommended would be the follow- 
ing. 



132 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

In the 1st place, the physical and organic laws, 
when truly discovered, appear to the mind as in- 
stitutions of the Creator, wise and salutary in them- 
selves, unbending in their operation, and universal 
in their application. They interest our intellectual 
faculties, and strongly impress our sentiments. 
The necessity of obeying them, comes upon us 
with all the authority of a mandate of God. While 
we confine ourselves to a mere recommendation to 
beware of damp, to observe temperance, or to take 
exercise, without explaining the principle, the in- 
junction carries only the weight due to the author- 
ity of the individual who gives it, and is address- 
ed to only two or three faculties, Veneration and 
Cautiousness, for instance, or Self-love in him who 
receives it. But if we are made acquainted with 
the elements of the physical world, and with those 
of our organized system, — with the uses of the 
different parts of the latter, and the conditions 
necessary to their healthy action, — with the causes 
of their derangement, and the pains consequent 
thereon: and if the obligation to attend to these 
conditions be enforced on our moral sentiments 
and intellect, then the motives to observe the phy- 
sical and organic laws, as well as the power of 
doing so, will be prodigiously increased. Before 
we can dance well, we must not only knoio the 
motions but our muscles must be trained to execute 
them. In like manner, to enable us to act on pre- 
cepts, we must not only comprehend their mean- 
ing, but our intellects and sentiments must be dis- 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 133 

ciplined into actual performance. Now, the very 
act of acquiring connected scientific information 
concerning the natural world, its qualities, and 
their relations, is to the intellect and sentiments 
what practical dancing is to the muscles ; it in- 
vigorates them ; and, as obedience to the natural 
laws must spring from them, exercise renders it 
more easy and delightful. 

2. It is only by being taught the principle on 
which consequences depend, that we see the in- 
variableness of the results of the physical and or- 
ganic laws ; acquire confidence in, and respect for 
the laws themselves ; and fairly endeavor to ac- 
commodate our conduct to their operation. Dr 
Johnson defines ' principle ' to be ' fundamental 
truth ; original postulate ; first position from which 
others are deduced ;' and in these senses f use 
the word. The human faculties are instinctively 
active, and desire gratification ; but Intellect itself 
must have fixed data, on which to reason, other- 
wise it is itself a mere impulse. The man in 
whom Constructiveness and Weight are powerful, 
will naturally betake himself to constructing ma- 
chinery ; but, if he be ignorant of the principles of 
mechanical science, he will not direct his efforts 
to as important ends, and attain them as success- 
fully, as if his intellect were stored with these. 
Principles are deduced from the laws of nature. 
A man may make music by the instinctive im- 
pulses of Time and Tune ; but there are immu- 
table laws of harmony ; and, if ignorant of these, 



134 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

he will not perform so invariably, correctly, and 
in good taste, as if he knew them. In every art 
and science, there are principles referable solely 
to the constitution of nature, but these admit of 
countless applications. A musician may produce 
gay, grave, solemn, or ludicrous tunes, all good of 
their kind, by following the laws of harmony ; but 
he will never produce one good piece by violating 
them. While the inhabitants west of Edinburgh 
allowed the stagnant pools to deface their fields, 
some seasons would be more healthy than others ; 
and, while the cause of the disease was unsuspect- 
ed, this would confirm them in the notion that 
health and sickness were dispensed by an over- 
ruling Providence, on inscrutable principles, which 
they could not comprehend ; but the moment the 
cause was known, it would be found that the most 
healthy seasons were those that were cold and 
dry, and the most sickly those that were warm and 
moist; and they would then perceive, that the 
superior salubrity of one year, and unwholesomeness 
of another, were clearly referable to one -principle, 
and would be both more strongly prompted, and 
rendered morally and intellectually more capable 
of applying the remedy. If some intelligent friend 
had merely told them to drain their fields, and re- 
move their dunghills, they would not probably have 
done it ; but whenever their intellects were enlight- 
ened, and their sentiments roused, to appreciate 
the advantages of adopting, and disadvantages of 
neglecting, the improvement, it became easy. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 135 

The truth of these views may be still further 
illustrated by examples. A young gentleman 
of Glasgow, whom I knew, went out, as a mer- 
chant to North America. Business required him 
to sail from New York to St Domingo. The 
weather was hot, and he, being very sick, found 
the confinement below deck, in bed, as he said, 
intolerable ; that is, this confinement was, for the 
moment, more painful than the course which he 
adopted, of laying himself down at full length on 
the deck, in the open air. He was warned by his 
fellow passengers, and the officers of the ship, that 
he would inevitably induce fever by this proceed- 
ing : but he was utterly ignorant of the physical 
and organic laws ; his intellect had been trained to 
regard only wealth and present pleasure as objects 
of real importance; it could perceive no necessary 
connexion between exposure to the mild and grate- 
ful sea breeze of a warm climate and fever, and he 
obstinately refused to quit his position. The con- 
sequence was, that he was rapidly taken ill, and 
lived just one day after arriving at St Domingo. 
Knowledge of chemistry and physiology would 
have enabled him, in an instant, to understand 
that the sea air, in warm climates, holds a pro- 
digious quantity of water in solution, and that 
damp and heat, operating together on the human 
organs, tend to derange their healthy action, and 
ultimately to destroy them entirely : and if his 
sentiments had been deeply imbued with a feeling 
of the indispensable duty of yielding obedience to 



136 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

the institutions of the Creator, he would have ac- 
tually enjoyed, not only a greater desire, but a 
greater power of supporting the temporary incon- 
venience of the heated cabin, and might, by possi- 
bility, have escaped death. 

Captain Murray, R. N. mentioned to Dr A. 
Combe, that, in his opinion, most of the bad ef- 
fects of the climate of the West Indies might be 
avoided by care and attention to clothing ; and so 
satisfied was he on this point, that he had petitioned 
to be sent there in preference to the North Ameri- 
can station, and had no reason to regret the change. 
The measures which he adopted, and their effects, 
are detailed in the following interesting and in- 
structive letter : 

' Assynt, April 22, 1827. 

1 My Dear Sir, 
1 1 should have written to you before this, had I 
not been anxious to refer to some memorandums, 
which I could not do before my return home from 
Coul. I attribute the great good health enjoyed 
by the crew of his Majesty's ship Valorous, when 
on the West India station, during the period I 
had the honor of commanding her, to the follow- 
ing causes. 1st, To the keeping the ship perfectly 
dry and clean; 2dly, To habituating the men to the 
wearing of flannel next the skin; 3dly, To the pre- 
caution I adopted, of giving each man a propor- 
tion of his allowance of cocoa before he left the 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 137 

ship in the morning, either for the purpose of wa- 
tering, or any other duty he might be sent upon ; 
and, 4thly, To the cheerfulness of the crew. 

* The Valorous sailed from Plymouth on the 24th 
December, 1823, having just returned from the 
coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, where she 
had been stationed two years, the crew, including 
officers, amounting to 150 men. I had ordered 
the purser to draw two pairs of flannel drawers, 
and two shirts extra for each man, as soon as I 
knew that our destination was the West Indies ; 
and, on our sailing, I issued two of each to every 
man and boy in the ship, making the officers of 
each division responsible for the men of their re- 
spective divisions wearing these flannels during the 
day and night ; and, at the regular morning nine 
o'clock musters, 1 inspected the crew personally ; 
for you can hardly conceive the difficulty I have 
had in forcing some of the men to use flannel at 
first ; although I never yet knew one who did not, 
from choice, adhere to it, when once fairly adopted.. 
The only precaution after this, was to sec that, in 
bad weather, the watch, when relieved, did not 
turn in, in their wet clothes, which the young hands 
were apt to do, if not looked after ; and their flan- 
nels were shifted every Sunday. 

1 Whenever fresh beef and vegetables could be 
procured at the contract price, they were always 
issued in preference to salt provision. Lime juice 
was issued whenever the men had been fourteen 
days on ship's provisions ; and the crew took their 



138 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

meals on the main deck, except in very bad 
weather. 

1 The quarter and main decks were scrubbed with 
sand and water, and wet holy stones, every morn- 
ing at daylight. The lower deck, cock-pit, and 
store-rooms were scrubbed every day after break- 
fast, with dry. holy stones and hot sand, until 
quite ichite, the sand being carefully swept up, 
and thrown overboard. The pump-well was also 
swabbed out dry, and then scrubbed with holy 
stones and hot sand ; and here, as well as in eve- 
r^ part of the ship which was liable to damp, 
Brodiestoves were constantly used, until every 
appearance of humidity vanished. The lower 
deck and cock-pit were washed once every week 
in dry weather ; but Brodiestoves were constantly 
kept burning in them, until they were quite dry 
again. 

' The hammocks were piped up, and in the net- 
tings, from 7 a. m. until dusk, when the men of 
each watch took down their hammocks alternately, 
by which means, only one half of the hammocks 
being down at a time, the tween decks were not 
so crowded, and the watch relieved was sure of 
turning into a dry bed on going below. The 
bedding was aired every week, once at least. The 
men were not permitted to go on shore in the 
heat of the sun, or where there was a probability of 
their getting spirituous liquors ; but all hands were 
indulged with a run on shore, when out of reach 
of such temptation. 



INFRINGEMENT OP ORGANIC LAWS. 139 

* I was employed on the coast of Caraccas, the 
West India Islands, and Gulf of Mexico; and in 
course of service, I visited Trinidad, Margarita, 
Cocha, Cumana, Nueva Barcelona, Laguira, Porto 
Cabello, and Maracaibo, on the coast of Caraccas; 
all the West India Islands, from Tobago to Cuba, 
both inclusive ; as also, Cara$ao and Aruba, and 
several of those places repeatedly ; also to Vera 
Cruz and Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico, which 
you will admit must have given a trial to the con- 
stitutions of my men, after two years amongst the 
icebergs of the Labrador, without an intervening 
summer between that icy coast and the coast of 
.Caraccas ; yet I arrived in England on June 24th, 
without having buried a single man or officer be- 
longing to the ship, or indeed having a single man 
on the sick list ; from which I am satisfied that a 
dry ship will always be a healthy one in any cli- 
mate. When in command of the Recruit, of 18 
guns, in the year 1809, I was sent to Vera Cruz, 

where I found the 46, the 42, the 

18, and gun-brig ; we were joined 

by the 36, and the 18. During the 

period we remained at anchor (from S to 10 weeks), 
the three frigates, lost from 30 to 50 men each, the 

brigs 16 to 18, the most of her crew, with 

two different commanders ; yet the Recruit, al- 
though moored in the middle of the squadron, and 
constant intercourse held with the other ships, did 
not lose a man, and had none sick. Now, as some 
of these ships had been as long in the West Indies 



140 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

as the Recruit, we cannot attribute her singular 
healthy state to seasoning, nor can I to superior 
cleanliness, because even the breeches of the car- 
ronades, and all the pins, were polished bright in 

both and , which was not the case 

with the Recruit. Perhaps her healthy state may 
be attributed to cheerfulness in the men ; to my 
never allowing them to go on shore in the morn- 
ing, on an empty stomach ; to the use of dry sand 
and holy stone for the ship ; to never working them 
in the sun ; perhaps to accident. Were I asked 
my opinion, I would say that I firmly believe that 
cheerfulness contributes more to keep a ship's 
company healthy, than any precaution that can be 
adopted ; and that, with this attainment, combined 
with the precautions I have mentioned, I should 
sail for the West Indies, with as little anxiety as I 
would for any other station. My Valorous fellows 
were as cheerful a set as I ever saw collected to- 
gether.' 

Suppose that two gentlemen were to ascend one 
of the Scottish mountains, in a hot summer day, 
and to arrive at the top, bathed in perspiration, 
and exhausted with fatigue. That one of them 
knew intimately the physical and organic laws, and 
that, all hot and wearied as he was, he should but- 
ton up his coat closer about his body, wrap a hand- 
kerchief about his neck and continue walking, at 
a quick pace, round the summit, in the full blaze 
of the sun. That the other, ignorant of these 
laws, should eagerly run to the base of a projecting 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 141 

cliff; stretch himself at full length on the turf, un- 
der its refreshing shade ; open his vest to the 
grateful breeze ; and, in short, give himself up en- 
tirely to the present luxuries of coolness and re- 
pose ; — the former, by warding off the rapid chill 
of the cool mountaiu air, would descend with 
health unimpaired ; while the latter would carry 
with him, to a certainty, the seeds of rheumatism, 
consumption, or fever, from permitting perspiration 
to be instantaneously checked, and the surface of 
the body to be cooled with an injurious rapidity. 
I have put these cases hypothetically, because, al- 
though I have seen and experienced the benefits 
of the former method, 1 have not directly observed 
the opposite. No season, however, passes in the 
Highlands, in which some tragedy of the latter 
description does not occur ; and, from the minutest 
information that I have been able to obtain, the 
causes have been such as are here described. 

I shall conclude these examples by a case which 
is illustrative of the points under consideration, and 
which I have had too good an opportunity of obser- 
ving in all its stages. 

An individual in whom it was my duty as well 
as pleasure, to be greatly interested, had resolved 
on carrying Mr Owen's views into practical effect, 
and got an establishment set agoing on his prin- 
ciples, at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire. The labor 
and anxiety which he underwent at the commence- 
ment of the undertaking, gradually impaired an 
excellent constitution ; and, without perceiving the 
9 



142 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

change, he, by way of setting an example of indus- 
try, took to digging with the spade, and actually 
worked fourteen days at this occupation, although 
previously unaccustomed to labor. This pro- 
duced haemoptysis. Being unable now for bodily 
exertion, he gave up his whole time to directing 
and instructing the people, about 250 in number, 
and for two or three weeks spoke the ivhole day, the 
effusion from his lungs continuing. Nature rapidly 
sunk under this irrational treatment ; and at last 
he came to Edinburgh for medical advice. When 
the structure and uses of his lungs were explained 
to him, and when it was pointed out that his treat- 
ment of them had been equally injudicious as if 
he had thrown lime or dust into his eyes, after 
inflammation, he was struck with the extent and 
consequences of his own ignorance, and exclaimed, 
How greatly he would have been benefited if one 
month of the five years which he had been forced 
to spend in a vain attempt at acquiring a mastery 
over the Latin tongue, had been dedicated to con- 
veying to him information concerning the structure 
of his body, and the causes which preserve and 
impair its functions. He had departed too widely 
from the organic laws to admit of an easy return ; 
he was seized with inflammation of the lungs, 
and with great difficulty got through that attack ; 
but it impaired his constitution so grievously, that 
he died, after a lingering illness of eleven months. 
He acknowledged, however, even in his severest 
pain, that he suffered under a just law. The lungs, 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 143 

he saw, were of the first-rate importance to life, 
and their proper treatment was provided for by this 
tremendous punishment, inflicted for neglecting 
the conditions requisite to their health. Had he 
given them rest, and returned to obedience to the 
organic law, at the first intimation of departure 
from it, the door stood wide open and ready to 
receive him ; but, in utter ignorance, he persever- 
ed for weeks in direct opposition to these condi- 
tions, till the fearful result ensued. 

This last case affords a striking illustration of the 
independence of the different institutions of the 
Creator, and of the necessity of obeying all of them, 
as the only condition of safety and enjoyment. 
The individual here alluded to, was deeply en- 
gaged in a most benevolent and disinterested ex- 
periment for promoting the welfare of his fellow 
creatures ; and superficial observers would say 
that this was just an example of the inscrutable 
decrees of Providence, which visited him with 
sickness, and ultimately with death, in the very 
midst of his most virtuous exertions. But* the 
institutions of the Creator are wiser than the 
imaginations of such- men. The first principle on 
which existence on earth, and all its advantages 
depend, is obedience to the physical and organic 
laws. The benevolent Owenite neglected these, 
in his zeal to obey the moral law ; and, if it were 
possible to' dispense with the one, by obeying the 
other, the whole theatre of man's existence would 
speedily become deranged, and involved in inex- 
plicable disorder. 



\ 



\ 



144 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

Having traced bodily sufferings, in the case of 
individuals, to neglect of, or opposition to, the 
organic laws, by their progenitors or by themselves, 
I next advert to another set of calamities, that 
may be called social miseries, and which obviously 
spring from the same causes ; but of which latter 
fact complete evidence was not possessed until 
Phrenology was discovered. And, first, in regard 
to evils of a domestic nature : — One fertile source 
of unhappiness arises from persons uniting in 
marriage whose tempers, talents, and dispositions 
do not harmonize. If it be true that natural 
talents and dispositions are connected by the 
Creator with particular configurations of brain, 
then it is obviously one of His institutions that, 
in forming a compact for life, these should be 
attended to.* If we imagine an individual en- 
dowed with the splendid cerebral developement of 
Raphael, under a mere animal impulse, uniting 
himself for life with a female, possessing a brain 
like that of Mary Macinnes/t which by no pos- 
sibility, could sympathise with his, this proceeding 
would be as direct an obstacle to happiness, as if a 
man were to surround himself with ice to remove 
sensations of cold. Until Phrenology was discov- 
ered, no natural index to mental qualities, that 
could be practically relied on, was possessed, and 
each individual was left to his own sagacity in di- 

* See Appendix, Note 2. 

f Casts of these heads are sold in the shops, and will be 
found in many Phrenological collections. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. ] 45 

recting his conduct ; but the natural law never 
bended one iota to accommodate itself to that state 
of ignorance. The Creator having bestowed on 
mankind faculties fitted to discover Phrenology, 
having consituted them so that their greatest enjoy- 
ment should consist in activity, framed his institu- 
tions in such a way as to confer happiness when 
they were discovered, and observed, and to carry 
punishment when unknown and infringed, as an 
arrangement at once benevolent and wise for the 
race. Kit be the fact, that natural talents and 
dispositions are indicated by cerebral developement; 
and if an individual, after this truth reaches his 
mind, shall form a connexion fitted to occasion him 
sorrow, it is obvious he must do so from one of two 
causes, either from contempt of the effects of devel- 
opement of brain, and a secret belief that he may 
evade its consequences, which is just contempt of 
an organic law, and disbelief in its consequences; 
or, secondly, from the predominance of avarice, or 
some animal or other feeling precluding his yield- 
ing obedience to what he sees to be an institution 
of the Creator. In either case, he must abide the 
consequences ; and although these may be griev- 
ous, they cannot be complained of as unjust. In 
the play of the Gamester, Mrs Beverly is repre- 
sented as a most excellent wife, acting habitually 
under the guidance of the moral sentiments and 
intellect ; but she is married to a being who, while 
he adores her, reduces her to beggary and misery. 
His sister utters an exclamation to this effect : — 



146 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

Why did just heaven unite such an angel to so 
heartless a thing ! The parallel of this case occurs 
too often in real life ; only it is not ' just Heaven' 
that makes such matches, but ignorant and thought- 
less human beings, who imagine themselves absolv- 
ed from all obligation to study and obey the natu- 
ral laws of Heaven, as announced in the general 
arrangement of the universe. Phrenology will put 
it in the power of mankind to mitigate these evils, 
when they choose to adopt its dictates as a practical 
rule of conduct. 

The justice and benevolence of rendering the 
individuals themselves unhappy who neglect this 
great institution of the Creator, become more strik- 
ing when in the next place, we consider the ef- 
fects, by the organic law, of such conduct, on the 
children of these ill-assorted unions. 

Physiologists, in general, are agreed, that a vigo- 
rous and healthy constitution of body in the parents, 
communicates existence, in the most perfect state, 
to the offspring,* and many observers of mankind, 
as well as medical authors, have remarked, also, 
the transmission, by hereditary descent, of mental 
talents and dispositions. 

Dr King, in speaking of the fatality which at- 
tended the House of Stuart, says, 'If I were to 

* Very young hens lay small eggs ; but a breeder of fowls 
will never set these to be hatched, because the animals pro- 
duced would be feeble and imperfectly developed. They 
select the largest and freshest eggs, and endeavor to rear 
the healthiest stock possible. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 147 

ascribe their calamities to another cause (than 
an evil fate), or endeavor to account for them by 
any natural means, I should t&ink they were chiefly 
owing to a certain obstinacy of temper t which ap. 
pears to have been hereditary and inherent in all 
the Stuarts, except Charles II.' 

It is well known that the caste of the Brahmins 
is the highest in point of intelligence as well as 
rank of all the castes in Hindostan ; and it is men- 
tioned by the missionaries as an ascertained fact, 
that their children are naturally more acute, intelli- 
gent, and docile, than the children of the inferior 
castes, age and other circumstances being equal. 

Dr Giiegory, in treating of the temperaments in 
his Conspectus Medicines Theoreticce, says, c Hujus- 
modi varietates non corporis modo, verum et anim 
quoque, plerumque congenita?, nonnunquam heredi- 
taria?, observantur. Hoc modo parentes saepe in 
proles reviviscunt ; certe parentibus liberi similes 
sunt, non vultum modo et corporis formam, sed 
animi indolem, et virtutes, et vitia. Imperiosa gens 
Claudia diu Romae floruit, impigra, ferox, superba; 
eadem illachrymabilem Tiberium, tristissimum ty- 
rennum, produxit ; tandem in immanem Caligu- 
lam, et Claudium, et Agrippinam, ipsumque de- 
mum Neronem, post sexcentos annos, desitura.'* 
— Cap. i. sect. 16. 

* Parents frequently live again in their offspring. It is 
quite certain that children resemble their parents, not only 
in countenance and the form of their body, but also in their 
mental dispositions, in their virtues and vices, &c. 



148 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

Phrenology reveals the principle on which these 
phenomona take place. Mental talents and dis- 
positions are determined by the size and constitu- 
tion of the brain. The brain is a portion of our 
organized system, and as such, is subject to the or- 
ganic laws, by one of which its qualities are trans- 
mitted by hereditary descent. This law, however, 
faint or obscure it may appear in individual cases, 
becomes absolutely undeniable in nations. When 
we place the collection of Hindoo, Charib, Negro, 
New Holland, North American, and European 
skulls, possessed by the phrenological Society, in 
juxtaposition, we perceive a national form and 
combination of organs in each actually obtruding 
itself upon our notice, and corresponding with the 
mental characters of the respective tribes ; the cere- 
bral developement of one tribe is seen to differ as 
widely from that of another, as the European 
mind does from that of the New Hollander. Here, 
then, each Hindoo, Chinese, New Hollander, 
Negro, and Charib, obviously inherits from his pa- 
rents a certain general type of head; and so does 
each European. If, then, the general forms and 
proportions are thus so palpably transmitted, can 
we doubt that the individual varieties follow the 
same rule, modified slightly by causes peculiar to 
the parents of the individual ? The differences of 
national character are equally conspicuous as those 
of national brains, and it is surprising how perma- 
nently both endure. It is observed by an author 
in the Edinburgh Review, that ' the Vicentine dis- 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 149 

trict is, as every one knows, and has been for ages, 
an integral part of the Venetian dominions, profes- 
sing the same religion, and governed by the same 
laws, as the other continental provinces of Venice; 
yet the English character is not more different from 
the French, than that of the Vicentine from the 
Paduan ; while the contrast between the Vicentine 
and his other neighbor, the Veronese, is hardly 
less remarkable.' — No. lxxxiv. p. 459. 

If, then, form, size, and constitution of brain, 
are transmitted from parents to children, if these 
determine natural mental talents and dispositions, 
which in their turn exercise the greatest influence 
over the happiness of individuals through the 
whole of life, it becomes extremely important to 
discover according to what laws this transmis- 
sion takes place. Three principles present them- 
selves to our consideration, at the first aspect of 
the question. Either in the first place, the con- 
stitution and qualities of brain, which the parents 
themselves inherit at birth, are transmitted abso- 
lutely, so that the children, sex following sex, are 
exact copies, without variation or modification, of 
the one parent or the other ; or, secondly, the natu- 
ral and inherent qualities of the father and mother 
combine, and are transmitted in a modified form 
to the offspring; or, thirdly, the qualities of the 
children are determined jointly by the constitution 
of the stock, and by the faculties which predomi- 
nate in power and activity in the parents, at the 
particular time when the organic existence of each 
child commences. 



150 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

Experience shows that the first cannot be the 
law; for, as often mentioned, a real law of nature 
admits of no exceptions, and it is well established, 
that the minds of children are not exact copies, 
without variation or modification, of those of the 
parents, sex following sex. Neither can the se- 
cond be the law, because it is equally certain that 
the minds of children, although sometimes, are not 
always, in talents and disposition, perfect modifi- 
cations of those of the father and mother. If 
this law prevailed, no child would be a copy of 
the father, none a copy of the mother, nor of any 
collateral relation, but each would be invariably 
a compound of the two parents, and all the chil- 
dren would be exactly alike, sex only excepted. 
Experience shows, that this cannot be the law. 
What, then, does experience say to the third idea, 
that the mental character of each child is deter- 
mined by the particular qualities of the stock, com- 
bined with those which predominate in the parents, 
when its existence commenced. 

I have already adverted to the influence of the 
stock, and shall now illustrate that of the con- 
dition of the parents, when existence is communi- 
cated. 

A strong illustration, in the case of the lower 
animals, appeared in the Edinburgh Review, No. 
lxxxiv. p. 457. 

' Every one conversant with beasts, 5 says the 
reviewer, ' knows, that not only their natural, but 
that many of their acquired qualities, are trans- 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 151 

mitted by the parents to their offspring. Perhaps 
the most curious example of the latter fact may be 
found in the pointer. 

1 This animal is endowed with the natural in- 
stinct of winding game, and stealing upon his 
prey, which he surprises, having first made a 
short pause, in order to launch himself upon it 
with more security of success. This sort of semi- 
colon in his proceedings, man converts into a full 
stop, and teaches him to be as much pleased at 
seeing the bird or beast drop by the shooter's 
gun, as at taking it himself. The staunchest dog 
of this kind, and of the original pointer, is of 
Spanish origin, and our own is derived from this 
race, crossed with that of the foxhound, or other 
breed of dog, for the sake of improving his speed. 
This mixed and factitious race, of course, natu- 
rally partakes less of the true pointer character ; 
that is to say, is less disposed to stop, or at least 
he makes a shorter stop at game. The factitious 
pointer is, however, disciplined, in this country^ 
into staunchness; and, what is most singular, 

THIS QUALITY IS, IN A GREAT DEGREE, INHERITED 

by hih puppy, who may be seen earnestly standing 
at swallows or pigeons in a farm yard. For in- 
tuition, though it leads the offspring to exercise 
his parent's faculties, does not instruct him how 
to direct them. The preference of his master 
afterwards guides him in his selection, and teaches 
him what game is better worth pursuit. On the 
other hand, the pointer of pure Spanish race, un- 



152 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

less he happen to be well broke himself, which in 
the south of Europe seldom happens, produces a 
race which are all but unteachable, according to 
our notions of a pointer's business. They will 
make a stop at their game, as natural instinct 
prompts them, but seem incapable of being drilled 
into the habits of the animal, which education 
has formed in this country, and has rendered, as I 
have said, in some degree, capable of transmitting 
his acquirements to his descendants. 

' Acquired habits are hereditary in other ani- 
mals besides dogs. English sheep, probably from 
the greater richness of our pastures, feed very 
much together ; while Scotch sheep are obliged 
to extend and scatter themselves over their hills, 
for the better discovery of food. Yet the English 
sheep, on being transferred to Scotland, keep their 
old habit of feeding in a mass, though so little 
adapted to their new country ; so do their de- 
scendants ; and the English sheep is not thorough- 
ly naturalized into the necessities of his place till 
the third generation. The same thing may be 
observed as to the nature of his food, that is ob- 
served in his mode of seeking it. When turnips 
were introduced from England into Scotland, it 
was only the third generation which heartily adopt- 
ed this diet, the first having been starved into an 
acquiescence in it.' 

In these instances, long continued impressions 
on the parents appear to have at last effected change 
of disposition in the offspring. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 153 

f We have seen,' says an author whom I have 
already quoted, 'how wonderfully the bee works — 
according to rules discovered by man thousands of 
years after the insect had followed them with per- 
fect accuracy. The same little animal seems to 
be acquainted with principles of which we are still 
ignorant. We can, by crossing, vary the forms of 
cattle with astonishing nicety; but we have no 
means of altering the nature of an animal, once 
born, by means of treatment and feeding. This 
power, however, is undeniably possessed by the 
bees. When the queen-bee is lost, by death or 
otherwise, they choose a grub from among those 
who are born for workers ; they make three cells 
into one, and, placing the grub there, they build a 
tube round it; they afterwards build another cell, 
of a pyramidal form, into which the grub grows : 
they feed it with peculiar food, and tend it with 
extreme care. It becomes, when transformed from 
the worm to the fly, not a worker, but a queen-bee.' 
— Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, 
p. 33. It is difficult to conceive that man will 
ever possess such a power as this last. 

Man, however, as an organized being, is subject 
to laws similar to those which govern the organi- 
zation of the lower animals. Dr Pritchard, in 
his researches into the Physical History of Man- 
kind, has brought forward a variety of interesting 
facts and opinions on this subject of transmission 
of hereditary qualities in the human race. He 
says, ' Children resemble, in feature and consti- 



154 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

tution, both parents, but, I think more generally 
the father. In the breeding of horses and oxen, 
great importance is attached, by experienced propa- 
gators, to the male. In sheep it is commonly observed 
that black rams beget black lambs. In the human 
species, also, the complexion chiefly follows that of 
the father ; and I believe it to be a general fact, 
that the offspring of a black father and white moth- 
er is much darker than the progeny of a white 
father and a black mother.' — Vol. ii. p. 551. 
These facts appear to me to be referable to both 
causes. The stock must have had some in- 
fluence, but the mother, in all these cases, is 
not impressed by her own color, because she 
does not look on herself; while the father's com- 
plexion must strikingly attract her attention, 
and may, in this way, give the darker tinge to 
the offspring.* 

Dr Pritchard states the result of his investi- 
gations to be, First, That the organization of the 
offspring is always modelled according to the type 
of the original structure of the parent; and, 
Secondly, ' That changes, produced by external 
causes in the appearance or constitution of the 
individual are temporary ; and, in general, acquir- 
ed characters are transient ; they terminate with 
the individual, and have no influence on the pro- 
geny.' —Vol. ii. p. 53G. He supports the first of 
these propositions by a variety of facts occurring 
' in the porcupine family,' ' in the hereditary nature 

* Black hens lay dark-colored eggs. 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 155 

of complexion,' and, ' in the growth of supernu- 
merary fingers or toes, and corresponding deficien- 
cies.' ' Maupertuis has mentioned this phenome- 
non ; he assures us, that there were two families in 
Germany, who have been distinguished for several 
generations by six fingers on each hand, and the 
same number of toes on each foot,' &,c. He ad- 
mits, at the same time, that the second proposition 
is of more difficult proof, and that an opinion con- 
trary to it ' has been maintained by some writers, 
and a variety of singular facts have been related in 
support of it.' But many of these relations, as he 
justly observes, are obviously fables. 

In regard to the foregoing propositions, I would 
observe, that a manifest distinction exists between 
transmission of monstrosities, or mutilations, which 
constitute additions to, or abstractions from, the 
natural lineaments of the body, and transmission 
of a mere tendency in particular organs to a greater 
or less developement of their natural functions. 
This last appears to me to be influenced by the 
state of the parents, at the time when existence is 
communicated to the offspring. On this point Dr 
Pritchard says, ' The opinion which formerly 
prevailed, and which has been entertained by some 
modern writers, among whom is Dr Darwin, that 
at the period when organization commences in 
the ovum, that is, at or soon after the time of con- 
ception, the structure of the fetus is capable of 
undergoing modification from impressions on the 
mind or senses of the parent, does not appear al- 



156 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

together so improbable. It is contradicted, at least, 
by no fact in physiology. It is an opinion of very 
ancient prevalence, and may be traced to so remote 
a period, that its rise cannot be attributed to the 
speculations of philosophers, and it is difficult to 
account for the origin of such a persuasion, unless 
we ascribe it to facts which happened to be observ- 
ed.' p. 556. 

A striking and undeniable proof of the effect on 
the character and dispositions of children, produced 
by the form of brain transmitted to them by hered- 
itary descent, is to be found in the progeny of 
marriages between Europeans, whose brains possess 
a favorable developement of the moral and intellec- 
tual organs, and Hindoos, and native Americans, 
whose brains are inferior. All authors agree, and 
report the circumstance as singularly striking, that 
the children of such unions are decidedly superior 
in mental qualities to the native, while they are still 
inferior to the European parent. Captain Frank- 
lin says, that the half-bred American Indians '. are 
upon the whole a good looking people ; and where 
the experiments have been made, have shown much 
expertness in learning, and willingness to be 
taught; they have, however, been sadly neglected. 
p. 86. He adds, ' It has been remarked, I do not 
know with what truth, that half breeds show more 
personal courage than the pure breeds. * Captain 
Basil Hall, and other writers on South America, 
mention that the offspring of native Ameican and 
Spanish parents, constitute the most active, vigor- 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 157 

ous, and powerful portion of the inhabitants of 
these countries ; and many of them rose to high 
commands during the revolutionary war. So much 
is this the case in Hindostan, that several writers 
have already pointed to the mixed race there, as 
obviously destined to become the future sovereigns 
of India. These individuals inherit from the na- 
tive parent a certain adaptation to the climate, and 
from the European parent a higher developement of 
brain, the two combined constituting their superi- 
ority. 

Another example of the same law occurs in 
Persia. In that country, it is said that the custom 
has existed for ages among the nobles, of purchas- 
ing beautiful female Circassian captives, and form- 
ing alliances with them as wives. It is ascertained 
that the Circassian form of brain stands compara- 
tively high in the developement of the moral and 
intellectual organs.* And it is mentioned by some 
travellers, that the race of nobles in Persia is the 
most gifted in natural qualities, bodily and mental, 
of any class of that people; a fact diametrically 
opposite to that which takes place in Spain, and 
other European countries, where the nobles inter- 

* In Mr VV. Allan's picture of the Circassian Captives, 
the form of the head is said to be a copy from nature, taken 
by that artist, when he visited the country. It is engraved 
by Mr James Stewart with great beauty and fidelity, 
and may be consulted as an example of the superiority of 
Circassian developement of the brain. 

10 



158 EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

marry constantly with each other, and set the 
organic laws altogether at defiance. 

The degeneracy and even idiocy of some of the 
noble and royal families of Spain and Portugal, 
from marrying nieces, and other near relations, is 
well known ; and defective brains, in all these cases, 
are observed. 

The father of Napoleon Bonaparte, says Sir 
Walter Scott, ' is stated to have possessed a very 
handsome person, a talent for eloquence, and a 
vivacity of intellect, which he transmitted to his 
son.' ' It was in the middle of civil discord, fights, 
and skirmishes, that Charles Bonaparte married 
L./Etitia Ramolini, one of the most beautiful 
young women of the island, and possessed of a 
great deal of firmness of character. She partook 
of the dangers of her husband during the years of 
civil war, and is said to have accompanied him on 
horseback on some military expeditions, or per- 
haps hasty flights, shortly before her being deliver- 
ed of the future Emperor.' — Life of Napoleon 
Bonaparte, vol. iii. p. 6. 

The murder of David Rizzio was perpetrated 
by armed nobles, with many circumstances of vio- 
lence and terror, in the presence of Mary, Queen 
of Scotland, shortly before the birth of her son, 
afterwards James the First of England . The con- 
stitutional liability of this monarch to emotions of 
fear, is recorded as a characteristic of his mind ; 
and it has even been mentioned that he started in- 
voluntarily at the sight of a drawn sword. Queen 



INFRINGEMENT OF ORGANIC LAWS. 159 

Mary was not deficient in courage, and the Stu- 
arts, both before and after James the First, were 
distinguished for this quality ; so that he was a 
marked exception to the dispositions of his family. 
Napoleon and James form striking contrasts ; and 
it may be remarked that the mind of Napoleon's 
mother appears to have risen to the danger to 
which she was exposed, and braved it; while the 
circumstances in which Queen Mary was placed, 
were calculated to inspire her with fear alone. 

Further evidence of the same law may still be 
mentioned. Esquirol, the celebrated French 
medical writer, in adverting to the causes of mad- 
ness, mentions that many children whose exist- 
ence dated from periods when the horrors of the 
French Revolution were at their height, turned 
out subsequently to be weak, nervous, and irrita- 
ble in mind, extremely susceptible of impressions, 
and liable, by the least extraordinary excitement, 
to be thrown into absolute insanity. Again, in a 
case which fell under my observation, the father 
of a family was sick, had a partial recovery, but 
relapsed, declined, and in two months died. Se- 
ven months after his death, a 6on was born, of the 
full age ; and the origin of whose existence was 
referable to the period of the partial recovery. 
At that time, and during the subsequent two 
months, the faculties of the mother were in the 
highest state of excitement, in ministering to her 
husband, to whom she was greatly attached; and, 
after his death, the same excitement continued 



160 TRANSMISSION OF 

to operate, for she was then loaded with the 
charge of a numerous family, but not depressed ; 
for her circumstances were comfortable. The 
child is now more than ten years old ; and, while 
his constitution is the most delicate, his devel- 
opement of the mental organs, and the natural 
activity of these, is decidedly the greatest of the 
family. Another illustration of the same law is 
found in the fact, that, when two parties marry 
very young, the eldest of their children generally 
inherits a less favorable developement of the 
moral and intellectual organs, than those pro- 
duced in more mature age, — which is in exact 
correspondence with the doctrine, that the animal 
faculties in men, in general, are most vigorous in 
early life, and will then be most readily trans- 
mitted to offspring. Indeed, it appears difficult 
to account for the wide varieties in the form of 
the brain in children of the same family, unless 
on the principle, that the organs which predomi- 
nate in activity and vigor in the parents, at the 
time when existence is communicated, determine 
the tendency of corresponding organs to develope 
themselves largely in the children. If this is 
really the law of nature, as there is great reason 
for believing, then parents, in whom combative- 
ness and destructiveness are in habitual activity, 
will transmit these organs, in a state of high de- 
velopement and excitement, to their children : and 
those in whom the moral and intellectual organs 
exist in supreme vigor, will transmit these in great- 
est perfection. 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 161 

This view is in harmony with the fact that chil- 
dren generally, although not universally, resemble 
the parents in their mental qualities ; because the 
largest organs being naturally the most active, the 
general and habitual state of the parents will be 
strongly marked by those which predominate in 
size in their own brains ; and on the principle 
of predominance in activity and energy causing 
the transmission of similar qualities to the off- 
spring, the children will, in this way, very gener- 
ally resemble the parents. But they will not 
always do so ; because, even Marv Macinnes, 
in whom the moral and intellectual organs were 
extremely deficient, might have been exposed to 
external influences, which, for the time being, 
might have excited them to unwonted vivacity ; 
and, according to the rule, as now explained, a 
child, dating its existence from that period, might 
ha,ve inherited a higher organization of brain than 
her own. Or, a person with a very excellent mo- 
ral developement, might, by some particular oc- 
currence, have his animal propensities roused to 
unwonted vigor, and his moral sentiments thrown, 
for the time, into the shade; and any offspring 
connected with that condition, would prove infe- 
rior to himself in the developement of the moral 
organs, and greatly surpass him in the size of those 
of the propensities. 

I do not present these views as ascertained 
phrenological science, but as inferences strongly 
supported by facts, and consistent with known 



162 TRANSMISSION OF 

phenomena. If we suppose them to be true, 
they will greatly strengthen the motives for pre- 
serving the habitual supremacy of the moral sen- 
timents and intellect, when, by doing so, im- 
proved moral and intellectual capacities may be 
conferred on offspring. If it be true that this 
lower world, so far as man is concerned, is framed 
to harmonize with the supremacy of the higher 
faculties of the mind, what a noble prospect would 
this law open up of the possibility of man ulti- 
mately becoming capable of placing himself more 
fully in accordance with the Divine institutions, 
than he has hitherto been able to accomplish ; 
and, in consequence, of reaping numberless en- 
joyments that appear destined for him by his Cre- 
ator, and avoiding thousands of miseries that now 
render his life a series of calamities. The views 
here expounded also harmonize with the second 
principle of this Essay, namely, That, as activity 
in the faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, the 
whole constitution of nature is designedly framed 
to call on them for ceaseless exertion. What scope 
for observation, reflection, the exercise of moral 
sentiments, and regulating of animal impulse, does 
not this picture of nature present ! 

I cordially agree, however, with Dr Pritch- 
ard, that this subject is still involved in very 
great obscurity. ' We know not,' says he, ' by 
what means any of the facts we remark are ef- 
fected ; and the utmost we can hope to attain, 
is, by tracing the connexion of circumstances, 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 163 

to learn from what combinations of them we 
may expect to witness particular results.' — Vol. 
ii. p. 542. But much of the darkness may be 
traced to the past ignorance of mankind concern- 
ing the functions of the brain. If we consider 
that it has all along been the most important 
organ of our system ; that, from its office, mental 
impressions must almost necessarily have exercis- 
ed a powerful influence over the developement of 
its parts, and that the relative size of these deter- 
mines the predominance of particular talents and 
dispositions ; but, nevertheless, that all past obser- 
vations have been conducted without the know- 
ledge of these principles ; it will not appear 
marvellous that merely confusion and contradic- 
tion have existed in the results drawn. At the 
present moment, accordingly, almost all that phre- 
nologists can pretend to accomplish, is, to point 
out the mighty void ; to offer an exposition of its 
causes ; and to state such inferences as their own 
very limited observations have hitherto enabled 
them to deduce. Far from pretending to be in 
possession of certain and complete knowledge on 
this subject, I am inclined to think, that, although 
every conjecture now hazarded were true, several 
centuries of observation will probably be required 
to render the principles completely practical. At 
present we have almost no information concern- 
ing the effects, on the children, of different tem- 
peraments, of different combinations in the cere- 
bral organs, of differences of age, &,c, in the 
parents. 



164 TRANSMISSION OF 

It is astonishing, however, to what extent mere 
pecuniary interests excite men to investigate and 
observe the Natural Laws, and how small an in- 
fluence moral and rational considerations exert in 
leading them to do so. Before a common insur- 
ance company will undertake the risk of paying 
.£100, on the death of an individual, they require 
the following questions to be answered by credible 
and intelligent witnesses : 

' 1. How long have you known Mr A. B. ? 

1 2. Has he had the gout ? 

i 3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthma, 
. consumption, or other pulmonary complaint? 

' 4. Do you consider him at all predisposed to 
any of these complaints? 

' 5. Has he been afflicted with fits, or mental de- 
rangement ? 

' 6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, 
in the common acceptation of the term ? 

' 7. Are his habits in every respect strictly regu- 
lar and temperate? 

' 8. Is he at present in good health ? 

' 9. Is there anything in his form, habits of liv- 
ing, or business, which you are of opinion may 
shorten his life ? 

* 10. What complaints are his family most sub- 
ject to? 

1 11 . Are you aware of any reason why an insur- 
ance might not with safety be effected on his 
life ? ' 

A man and woman about to marry, have in the 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 165 

general case, the health and happiness of five or 
more human beings depending on their attention 
to consideration, essentially the same as the fore- 
going, and yet how much less scrupulous are they 
than the mere speculators in money ? 

There is no moral difficulty in admitting and 
admiring the wisdom and benevolence of the 
institution, by which good qualities are transmit- 
ted from parents to children ; but it is frequently 
held as unjust to the latter, that they should in- 
herit parental deficiencies, and so be made to suffer 
for sins which they did not commit. In solving 
this difficulty, I must again refer to the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments, as the theory of the con- 
stitution of the world. The animal propensities 
are all selfish, and regard only the immediate and 
apparent interest of the individual ; while the 
higher sentiments delight in that which communi- 
cates the greatest quantity of enjoyment to the 
greatest i. imber. Now, let us suppose the law of 
hereditary descent to be abrogated altogether, that 
is to say, that each individual of the race at birth 
were endowed with fixed natural qualities, without 
the slightest reference to what his parents had been, 
or done ; — this form of constitution would obvious- 
ly cut off every possibility of improvement in the 
race. Every phrenologist knows, that the New 
Hollanders, Charibs, and other savage tribes, are 
distinguished by great deficiencies in the moral 
and intellectual organs.* If, however it be true, 

* This fact is demonstrated by specimens in most Phrenolo- 
gical Collections. 



166 TRANSMISSION OF 

that considerable developement of intellectual or- 
gans is indispensable to the comprehension of sci- 
ence, and the practice of virtue, it would, on the 
present supposition, be impossible to raise the New 
Hollanders, as a people, one step higher in capacity 
for intelligence and virtue than they now are. We 
might cultivate each generation up to the limit of 
its powers, but there the improvement, and a low 
one it would be, would stop ; for the next genera- 
tion, being produced with brains equally deficient 
in the moral and intellectual regions, no principle 
of increasing amelioration would exist. The same 
remarks are applicable to every tribe of mankind. 
If we assume modern Europeans as the standard, 
then, if the law of hereditary descent were abro- 
gated, every deficiency that at this moment is at- 
tributable to imperfect or disproportionate develope- 
ment of brain, would be irremediable, and con- 
tinue as long as the race existed. Each genera- 
tion might be cultivated till the summit level of its 
capacities was attained, but there each succeeding 
generation would remain. When we contrast with 
this prospect the very opposite effects flowing from 
the law of hereditary transmission of qualities in 
an increasing ratio, the whole advantages are at 
once perceived to be on the side of the latter con- 
stitution. According to this rule, the children of 
the individuals who have obeyed the organic, the 
moral, and the intellectual laws, would start from 
the highest level of their parents, not only in acquir- 
ed knowledge, but in consequence of that very 



HEREDITARY dUALlTlES. 167 

obedience, they would inherit an enlarged devel- 
opement of the moral and intellectual organs, and 
thereby enjoy an increasing capability of discov- 
ering and obeying the Creator's institutions. This 
improvement, will, no doubt, have its limits ; but 
it may probably extend to that point at which man 
will be capable of placing himself in harmony with 
the natural laws. The effort necessary to main- 
tain himself there, will still provide for the activity 
of his faculties. 

2dly. We may suppose the law of hereditary 
descent to be limited to the transmission of good, 
and abrogated as to the transmission of bad quali- 
ties ; and it may be thought that this arrangement 
would be more benevolent and just. There are 
objections to this view, however, which do not oc- 
cur at once to the mind. We see as matter of fact, 
that a vicious and debased parent is actually defec- 
tive in the moral and intellectual organs. Now, if 
his children should take up exactly the same devel- 
opement as himself, this would be transmission of 
imperfections, which is the very point objected to ; 
or, if he were to take up a developement fixed by 
nature, and not at all referable to that of the parent ; 
this would render the whole race stationary in their 
first condition, without the possibility of improve- 
ment in their capacities, which also we have seen 
would be an evil greatly to be deprecated. 

3dly. The bad developement might be supposed 
to transmit, by hereditary descent, a good devel- 
opement : but this would set at naught the supre- 



168 TRANSMISSION OF 

macy of justice and benevolence ; it would render 
the consequences of contempt for, and violation of 
the divine laws, and of obedience to them, in this 
particular, precisely alike. The debauchee, the 
cheat, the murderer, and the robber, would, accord- 
ing to this view, be able to look upon the pros- 
pects of their prosperity, with the same confidence 
in their welfare and happiness, as the pious and 
intelligent Christian, who had sought to know 
God and to obey his institutions during his whole 
life. Certainly no individual, in whom the higher 
sentiments prevail, will for a moment regard this 
imagined change as any improvement on the Cre- 
ator's arrangements. What a host of motives to 
moral and religious conduct would at once be with- 
drawn, were such a spectacle of divine government 
exhibited to the mind. In proportion as the brain 
is improved, the aptitude of man for discovering and 
obeying the natural laws will be increased. For ex- 
ample, it appears to me that the native American 
savages and native New Hollanders, cannot, with 
their present brains, adopt European civilization. 
The reader will find in the Phrenological Collec- 
tions specimens of their skulls, and, on comparing 
them with those of Europeans, he will observe that, 
in the former, the organs of reflecting ' intellect, 
Ideality, Conscientiousness, and Benevolence, are 
greatly inferior in size to the same organs in the lat- 
ter. If, by obeying the organic laws, the moral and 
intellectual organs of these savages could be consi- 
derably enlarged, they would desire civilization, 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 169 

and would adopt it when offered. If this view be 
well founded, all means used for their cultivation, 
which are not calculated at the same time to im- 
prove their Cerebral organization, will be limited in 
their effects by the narrow capacities attending their 
present developement. In youth, all the organs of the 
body are more susceptible of modification than in 
advanced age ; and hence the effects of education on 
the young may arise from the greater susceptibility 
of the brain to impressions at that period than later. 
4thly. It may be supposed that human happiness 
would have been more completely secured, by en- 
dowing all individuals at birth with that degree of 
developement of the moral and intellectual organs, 
which would have best fitted them for discovering 
and obeying the Creator's institutions, and by pre- 
venting all aberrations from this standard ; just as 
the lower animals appear to have received instincts 
and capacities, adjusted with the most perfect wis- 
dom to their conditions. Two remarks occur on 
this supposition. First ; We are not competent at 
present to judge correctly how far the developement 
actually bestowed on the human race, is, or is not, 
wisely adapted to their circumstances ; for there 
may, by possibility, be departments in the great 
system of human society, exactly suited to all ex- 
isting forms of brain, not imperfect through dis- 
ease, if our knowledge were sufficient to discover 
them. The want of a natural index to the mental 
dispositions and capacities of individuals, and of a 
philosophical theory of the constitution of society, 



170 TRANSMISSION OF 

has hitherto precluded the possibility of arriving at 
sound conclusions on this question. It appears to 
me probable, that while there may be great room 
for improvement in the talents and dispositions of 
vast numbers of individuals, the imperfections of 
the race in general may not be so great, as we, in 
our present state of ignorance of the aptitudes of 
particular persons for particular situations, are 
prone to infer. But, secondly, on the principle 
that activity in the faculties is the fountain of enjoy- 
ment, it may be considered whether additional 
motives to the exercise of the moral and intellectual 
powers, and, consequently, greater happiness, are 
not conferred by leaving men, within certain limits, 
to regulate the talents and tendencies of their 
descendants, than by endowing each individual with 
the best qualities, independently of the conduct of 
his parents. 

On the whole, therefore, there seems reason for 
concluding, that the actual institution, by which 
both good and bad qualities* are transmitted, is 
fraught with higher advantages to the race, than 

* In using the popular expressions ' good qualities' and 
'bad qualities,' I do not mean to insinuate, that any of the 
tendencies bestowed on man are essentially bad. in them- 
selves. Destructiveness and Acquisitiveness, for example, 
are, when properly directed, unquestionably good ; but they 
become the sources of evil, when their organs are too large, 
in proportion to those of the moral sentiments and intellect. 
By bad qualities, therefore, I always mean either disease, or 
unfavorable proportions among the different organs. 



HEREDITARY aUALITIES. 171 

the abrogation of the law of transmission altogeth- 
er ; or than the supposed change of it, by which 
bad men would transmit good qualities to their 
children. The actual law, when viewed by the 
moral sentiments and intellect, both in its princi- 
ples and consequences, appears beneficial and ex- 
pedient. When an individual sufferer, therefore, 
complains of its operation, he regards it through 
the animal faculties alone ; his self-love is annoy- 
ed, and he carries his thoughts no further. He 
never stretches his mind forward to the conse- 
quences to mankind at large, if the law which 
grieves him were reversed. The animal faculties 
regard nothing beyond their own immediate and 
apparent interest, and they do not even discern it 
correctly ; for no arrangement that is beneficial 
for the race can be injurious to individuals, if its 
operations in regard to them were distinctly traced. 

The abrogation of the rule, therefore, under 
which they complain, would, we may be certain, 
bring ten thousand times greater evils, even upon 
themselves, than its continuance. 

On the other hand, an individual sufferer under 
an hereditary pain, in whom the moral and intellec- 
tual ."acuities predominate, who should see the 
principle and consequences of the institution of 
hereditary descent, as now explained, would not 
murmur at them as unjust ; he would bow with 
submission to an institution, which he perceived 
to be fraught with blessings to the race, when it 
was known and observed, and the very practice of 



172 TRANSMISSION OF 

this reverential acquiescence would be so delight- 
ful, that it would diminish, in a great degree, the 
severity of the evil. Besides, he would see the 
door of mercy standing widely open, and inviting 
his return ; he would perceive that every step 
which he made in his own person towards exact 
obedience to the Creator's institutions, would re- 
move by so much the organic penalty transmitted 
through his parents' transgressions, and that his 
posterity would reap the full benefits of his more 
dutiful observance. 

It may be objected to the law of hereditary 
transmission of organic qualities, that the children 
of a blind and lame father have sound eyes and 
limbs: But, in the 1st place, these defects are 
generally the result of accident or disease, occur- 
ring either during preguancy, or posterior to birth, 
and seldom or never the operation of nature ; and, 
consequently, the original physical principles re- 
maining entire in the constitution, the bodily im- 
perfections are not transmitted to the progeny. 
2dly. Where the defects are congenite or consti- 
tutional, it frequently happens that they are trans- 
mitted through successive generations. This is 
exemplified in deafness, in blindness, and even in 
the possession of supernumerary fingers or toes. 
The reason why such peculiarities are f not trans- 
mitted to all the progeny, appears to be simply 
that, in general, only one parent, is defective. If 
the father, for instance, be blind or deaf, the 
mother is generally free from that imperfection, and 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 173 

her influence naturally extends to, and modifies 
the result in, the progeny. 

If the law of hereditary transmission of mental 
qualities be, as now explained, dependent on the 
organs in highest excitement in the parents, it will 
account for the varieties, along with the general 
resemblance, that occur in children of the same 
marriage. It will account also for the circum- 
stance of genius being sometimes transmitted and 
sometimes not. Unless both parents possess the 
developements and temperament of genius, the 
law would not certainly transmit these qualities to 
the children ; and even although both did possess 
these endowments, they would be transmitted only 
on condition of the parents obeying the organic 
laws, one of which forbids that excessive exertion 
of the mental and corporeal functions, which ex- 
hausts and debilitates the system ; an error almost 
universally committed by persons endowed with 
high original talent, under the present condition 
of ignorance of the natural laws, and erroneous 
fashions and institutions of society. The supposed 
law would be disproved by cases of weak, im- 
becile, and vicious children, being born to parents 
whose own constitution and habits had been in the 
highest accordance with the organic, moral, and 
intellectual laws ; but no such cases have hitherto 
come under my observation. 

Further ; after birth, it is quite certain that the 
organs most active in the parents have a decided 
tendency to cause and increase in the size of cor- 
11 



174 TRANSMISSION OF 

responding organs in the children, by habitually 
exciting and exercising them, which favors their 
growth. According to this law, habitual severity, 
chiding, and imperious conduct, proceeding from 
over-active Self-esteem and Destructiveness in the 
parents, rouse these faculties in the children, pro- 
duce hatred and resistance, and increase the ac- 
tivity of the same organs, while those of the moral 
sentiments and intellect are left in a state of 
apathy. 

Rules, however, are best taught by examples ; 
and I shall, therefore, proceed to mention some 
facts that have fallen under my own notice, or 
been communicated to me from authentic sources, 
illustrative of the practical consequences of in- 
fringing the law of hereditary descent. 

A man, aged about fifty, possessed a brain, in 
which the animal, moral, and knowing intellectual 
organs were all strong, but the reflecting weak. 
He was pious, but destitute of education ; he 
married an unhealthy young woman, deficient in 
moral developement, but of considerable force of 
character; and several children were born. The 
father and mother were far from being happy ; 
and, when the children attained to eighteen or 
twenty years of age, they were adepts- in every 
species of immorality and profligacy ; they picked 
their father's pockets, stole his goods, and got them 
sold back to him, by accomplices, for money, 
which was spent in betting and cock-fighting, 
drinking, and low debauchery. The father was 



HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 175 

heavily grieved ; but knowing only two resources, 
he beat the children severely as long as he was 
able, and prayed for them ; his own words were, 
that ' if, after that, it pleased the Lord to make 
vessels of wrath of them, the Lord's will must 
just be done.' I mention this last observation, 
not in jest, but in great seriousness. It was im- 
possible not to pity the unhappy father ; yet, who 
that sees the institutions of the Creator to be in 
themselves wise, but in this instance to have been 
directly violated, will not acknowledge that the 
bitter pangs £ of the poor old man were the conse- 
quences of his own ignorance ; and that it was an 
erroneous view of the divine administration, which 
led him to overlook his own mistakes, and to at- 
tribute to the Almighty the purpose of making 
vessels of wrath of his children, as the only expla- 
nation which he could give of their wicked dispo- 
sitions. Who that sees the cause of his misery 
must not lament that his piety should not have 
been enlightened by philosophy, and directed to 
obedience, in the first instance, to the organic in- 
stitutions of the Creator, as one of the prescribed 
conditions, without observance of which he had no 
title to expect a blessing upon his offspring. 

In another instance, a man, in whom the animal 
organs, particularly those of Combativeness and 
Destructiveness, were very large, but with a pretty 
fair moral and intellectual developement, married, 
against her inclination, a young woman, fashiona- 
bly and showily educated, but with a very decided 



176 MISERIES ARISING FROM NEGLECT 

deficiency in Conscientiousness. They soon be- 
came unhappy, and even blows were said to have 
passed between them, although they belonged to 
the middle rank of life. The mother, in this 
case, employed the children to deceive and plun- 
der the father, and, latterly, spent the produce in 
drink. The sons inherited the deficient morality 
of the mother, and the ill temper of the father. 
The family fireside became a theatre of war, and 
before the sons attained majority, the father was 
glad to get them removed from his house, as the 
only means by which he could feel even his life in 
safety from their violence ; for they had by that time 
retaliated the blows with which he had visited 
them in their younger years ; and he stated that he 
actually considered his life to be in danger from his 
own offspring. 

In another family, the mother possesses an ex- 
cellent developement of the moral and intellectual 
organs, while, in the father, the animal organs pre- 
dominate in great excess. She has been the un- 
happy victim of ceaseless misfortune, originating 
from the misconduct of her husband. Some of 
the children have inherited the father's brain, and 
some the mother's ; and of the sons whose heads 
resembled the father's, several have died through 
mere debauchery and profligacy under thirty years 
of age; whereas, those who resemble the mother 
are alive and little contaminated, even amidst all 
the disadvantages of evil example. 

On the other hand, I am not acquainted with a 



OP ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 177 

single instance in which the moral and intellectual 
organs predominated in size, in both father and 
mother, and whose external circumstances also 
permitted their general activity, in which the 
whole children did not partake of a moral and in- 
tellectual character, differing slightly in degrees 
of excellence one from another, but all present- 
ing the decided predominance of the human over 
the animal faculties. 

There are well-known examples of the children 
of religious and moral fathers exhibiting disposi- 
tions of a very inferior description ; but in all of 
these instances that I have been able to observe, 
there has been a large developement of the ani- 
mal organs in the one parent, which was just con- 
trolled, but not much more, by the moral and in- 
tellectual powers : and in the other parent, the 
moral organs did not appear to be in large pro- 
portion. The unfortunate child inherited the 
large animal developement of the one, with the 
defective moral developement of the other ; and, 
in this way, was inferior to both. The way to 
satisfy one's self on this point, is to examine the 
heads of the parents. In all such cases, a large 
base of the brain, which is the region of the ani- 
mal propensities, will very probably be found in 
one or other of them. 

Another organic law of the animal kingdom de- 
serves attention ; viz. that by which marriages 
betwixt blood relations tend decidedly to the de- 
terioration of the physical and mental qualities of 



178 ORGANIC LAWS. 

the offspring. In Spain kings marry their nieces, 
and, in this country, first and second cousins mar- 
ry without scruple ; although every philosophical 
physiologist will declare that this is in direct op- 
position to the institutions of nature. This law 
holds also in the vegetable kingdom. ' A provis- 
ion, of a very simple kind, is, in some cases, made 
to prevent the male and female blossoms of the 
same plant from breeding together, this being 
found to hurt the breed of vegetables, just as 
breeding in and in does the breed of animals. It 
is contrived, that the dust shall be shed by the 
male blossom before the female is ready to be af- 
fected by it, so that the impregnation must be per- 
formed by the dust of some other plant, and in 
this way the breed be crossed.' — Objects, Sfc. of 
Science, p. 33. 

On the same principle, it is found highly advan- 
tageous in agriculture not to sow grain of the 
same stock in constant succession on the same 
soil. In individual instances, if the soil and 
plants are both possessed of great vigor and the 
highest qualities, the same kind of grain may be 
reaped in succession twice or thrice, with less per- 
ceptible deterioration than where these elements 
of reproduction are feeble and imperfect ; and 
the same thing appears in the animal kingdom. 
If the first individuals connected in near relation- 
ship, who unite in marriage, are uncommonly ro- 
bust, and possess very favorably developed brains, 
their offspring may not be so much deteriorated 



CHOICE OF SERVANTS, ETC. 179 

below the common standard of the country as to 
attract particular attention, and the law of nature 
is, in this instance, supposed not to hold ; but it 
does hold, for to a law of nature there never is an 
exception. The offspring are uniformly inferior 
to what they icould have been, if the parents had 
united with strangers in blood of equal vigor and 
cerebral developement. Whenever there is any 
remarkable deficiency in parents who are related 
in blood, these appear in the most marked and 
aggravated forms in the offspring. This fact is so 
well known, and so easily ascertained, that I for- 
bear to enlarge upon it. So much for miseries 
arising from neglect of the organic laws in form- 
ing the domestic compact. 

I proceed to advert to those evils which arise 
from overlooking the operation of the same laws 
in ordinary relations of society. 

How many little annoyances arise from the mis- 
conduct of servants and dependents in various de- 
partments of life ; how many losses, and some- 
times ruin, arise from dishonesty and knavery in 
confidential clerks, partners, and agents. A mer- 
cantile house of great reputation, in London, was 
ruined and became bankrupt, by a clerk having 
embezzled a prodigious extent of funds, and ab- 
sconded to America ; another company in Edin- 
burgh, was talked of about a year ago, which had 
sustained a great loss by a similar piece of dis- 
honesty ; a company in Paisley was ruined by one 



ISO ORGANIC LAWS. 

of the partners having collected the funds, and 
eloped with them to the United States ; and late- 
ly, several bankers, and other persons, suffered 
severely in Edinburgh, by the conduct of an indi- 
vidual, some time connected with the public press. 
If it be true, then, that the mental qualities and 
dispositions of individuals are indicated and in^ 
fluenced by the developement of their brains, and 
that their actual conduct is the result of this de- 
velopement, operated upon by their external cir- 
cumstances, including in this latter every moral 
and intellectual influence coming from without, is 
it not obvious, that one and all of the evils here 
enumerated flowed from infringement of the natu- 
ral institutions, that is to say, from having placed 
human beings decidedly deficient in moral or in- 
tellectual qualities in situations where these were 
required in a higher degree than they possessed 
them ? 

If any man were to go to sea in a paper boat, 
which the very fluidity of the element would dis- 
solve, no one would be surprised at his being 
drowned : and, in like manner, if the Creator has 
constituted the brain so as to exert a great influ- 
ence on the mental dispositions, and if, neverthe- 
less, men are pleased to treat this fact with neg- 
lect and contempt, and to place individuals, natu- 
rally deficient in the moral organs, in situations 
where a great degree of these sentiments is re- 
quired, they have no cause to be surprised if they 
suffer the penalties of their own misconduct, in 
being plundered and defrauded. 



CHOICE OF SERVANTS, ETC. 181 

Although I can state, from experience, that it 
is possible, by the aid of Phrenology, to select in- 
dividuals whose moral and intellectual qualities 
may be relied on, yet, the extremely limited ex- 
tent of our practical knowledge in this respect 
fails to be confessed. To be able to judge accu- 
rately what combination of natural talents and dis- 
positions in an individual will best fit him for any 
given employment, we require to have seen a va- 
riety of combinations tried in that particular de- 
partment, and to have noted their effects. It is 
impossible, at least for me, to anticipate with un- 
erring certainty, what these effects will be : but I 
have ever found nature constant ; and after once 
discovering, by experience, an assortment of qual- 
ities suited to a particular duty, I have found no 
subsequent exception to the rule. Cases in which 
the predominance of particular regions of the 
brain, as the moral and intellectual, is very decid- 
ed, present fewest difficulties ; although, even in 
them, the very deficiency of animal organs may 
sometimes incapacitate an individual for important 
stations ; but where the three classes of organs? 
the animal, moral, and intellectual, are nearly in 
cequilibrio, the most opposite results may ensue by 
external circumstances exciting the one or the 
other to decided predominance in activity. 

Having now adverted to calamities by external 
violence, — to bad health, — unhappiness in the 



182 ORGANIC LAWS. 

domestic circle, arising from ill-advised unions, 
and viciously disposed children, — to the evils of 
placing individuals, as servants, clerks, partners, 
public instructers, &c, in situations to which they 
are not suited, by their natural qualities, and traced 
all of them to infringements or neglect of the 
physical or organic laws, I proceed to advert to 
the last, and what is reckoned the greatest of all 
calamities, death, and which itself is obviously a 
part of the organic law. Baron Cuvier, after stat- 
ing that the world we inhabit was at first fluid, and 
that highly crystalline rocks were deposited before 
animal or vegetable life began, has demonstrated, 
that then came the lowest orders of zoophytes 
and of vegetables, next fishes and reptiles, and 
trees in vast forests, giving origin to our pres- 
ent beds of coal, then quadrupeds and birds, and 
shells and plants, resembling those of the present 
sera, but all of which, as species, have utterly 
perished from the earth ; next came alluvial rocks, 
containing bones of mammoths, &.C., and last of 
all came man. (Cuvieii's Preface to his Ossemens 
Fossiles, and papers by Dr Fleming in Chalmers' 
Journal.) This shows that destruction of vegeta- 
ble and animal life were institutions of nature be- 
fore man became an inhabitant of the globe. It 
is beyond the compass of philosophy to explain why 
the world was so constituted. I therefore make 
no inquiry why death was instituted, and refer, 
of course, only to the dissolution of organized 
bodies, and not at all to the state of the soul or 



DEATH. 183 

mind after its separation from the body. These 
belong to Revelation. 

Let us first view the dissolution of the body ab- 
stractedly from personal considerations, as a mere 
natural arrangement. Death, then, appears to be 
a result of the constitution of all organized beings ; 
for the very definition of the genus, is, that the 
individuals grow, attain maturity, decay, and die. 
The human imagination cannot conceive how the 
former part of this series of movements could ex- 
ist without the latter, as long as space is necessary 
to corporeal existence. If all the vegetable and 
animal productions of nature, from creation down- 
wards, had grown, attained maturity, and there 
remained, this world would not have been capable 
of containing one thousandth part of them ; so 
that, on this earth, decaying and dying appear in- 
dispensably necessary to admit of reproduction and 
growth. Viewed abstractedly, then, organized 
beings live as long as health and vigor continue ; 
but they are subjected to a process of decay, which 
impairs gradually all their functions, and at last 
terminates in their dissolution. Now, in the vege- 
table world, the effect of this law, is, to surround 
us with young forests, in place of the monotony of 
everlasting stately full grown woods, standing forth 
in awful endless majesty, without variation in leaf 
or bough ; — with the vernal bloom of the mea- 
dows, changing gracefully into the vigor of summer, 
and the maturity of autumn ; — with the rose, first 
simply and delicately budding, next fresh and lovely 



184 ORGANIC LAWS. 

in its blow, and then rich and luxuriant in its per- 
fect condition. In short, when we advert to the 
law of death, as instituted in the vegetable organ- 
ized kingdom, and as related to our own faculties 
of Ideality, Wonder, &,c, which desire and delight 
in the very changes which death introduces, we 
without hesitation exclaim, that all is wisely, ad- 
mirably, and wonderfully made. Turning, again, 
to the animal kingdom, the same fundamental prin- 
ciple prevails. Death removes the old, the worn 
out, and decayed, and, in their place, the organic 
law introduces the young, the gay, and the vigor- 
ous, to tread the stage with increased agility and 
delight. 

This transfer of existence may readily be grant- 
ed to be beneficial to the young : but, at first 
sight, it appears the opposite of benevolent to the 
old. To have lived at all, is felt as giving a right 
to continue to live ; and the question arises, how 
can the institution of death, as the result of the 
organic law, be reconciled with Benevolence and 
Justice ? 

In treating of the supremacy of the sentiments, 
I pointed out, that the grand distinction between 
them and the propensities, consist in this, that the 
former are disinterested, generous, and fond of 
the general good, and the latter altogether selfish 
in their desires. It is obvious, that death, as an 
institution of the Creator, must affect these two 
classes of faculties in the most different manner. 
The propensities, being confined in their gratifica- 



DEATH. 185 

tion to self, and having no reference to the wel- 
fare of any other creature, a being endowed only 
with them and reflecting intellect, and enabled, 
by the latter, to discover death and its conse- 
quences, would regard it as the most appalling of 
visitations, and would see in it only utter extinction 
of all enjoyment. The lower animals, then, whose 
whole being is composed of the inferior propensi- 
ties, and several knowing faculties, would see 
death, if they could at all anticipate it, only in 
this light. So tremendously fearful would it ap- 
pear to them, as the extinguisher of every pleasure 
which they had ever felt or could conceive, that 
we may safely predicate, that the bare prospect of 
it would render their lives wretched, and that 
nothing could compensate the agonies of terror, 
with which an habitual consciousness of it would 
inspire them. But, by depriving them of reflect- 
ing organs, the Creator has kindly and effectually 
preserved them from the influence of this evil. 
He has thereby rendered them completely blind 
to its existence. There is not the least reason to 
believe, that any one of the lower animals, while 
in health and vigor, has the slightest conception 
that it is a mortal creature, any more than a tree 
has that it will die. In consequence, it lives in as 
full enjoyment of the present, as if it were assured 
of every agreeable sensation being eternal. Death 
always takes the individual by surprise, whether 
it comes in the form of violence, suppressing life 
in youth, or of slow decay by age ; therefore, it 



186 ORGANIC LAWS. 

really operates in their case as a transference of 
existence from one being to another, without con- 
sciousness of the loss in the one which dies. Let 
us, however, trace the operation of death, in re- 
gard to the lower animals, a little more in detail 
It will not be disputed, that the world is calcu- 
lated to contain and support only a definite number 
of living creatures, that the lower animals have 
received from nature powers of reproduction far 
beyond what is necessary to supply the waste of 
life, by natural decay, and that they do not possess 
intellect sufficient to restrain their numbers within 
the limits of their means of subsistence. Here, 
therefore, is an institution in which destruction of 
life, to a great extent, is necessarily implied. Phi- 
losophy cannot tell why death was instituted at 
first, but, according to the views maintained in this 
Essay, we should expect to find it connected with, 
and regulated by, benevolence and justice; that is 
to say, that it should not be inflicted for the sole 
purpose of extinguishing the life of individuals, to 
their damage, without any other result ; but that 
the general system under which it takes place 
should be, on the whole, favorable to the enjoy- 
ment of the race ; and this accordingly is the fact. 
Violent death, and the devouring of one animal by 
another, are not purely benevolent, because pure 
benevolence would never inflict pain ; but they are 
instances of destruction guided by benevolence ; 
that is, wherever death proceeds under the institu- 
tions of nature, it is accompanied with enjoyment or 



DEATH. 187 

beneficial consequences to one set of animals or 
another. Herbivorous animals are exceedingly 
prolific, yet the supply of vegetable food is limited. 
Hence, after multiplying for a few years, extensive 
starvation, the most painful and lingering of all 
deaths, and the most detrimental to the race, would 
inevitably ensue; but carnivorous animals have 
been instituted who kill and eat them ; and by this 
means not only do carnivorous animals reap the 
pleasures of life, but the numbers of the herbivorous 
are restrained within such limits, that the individu- 
als among them enjoy existence while they live. 
The destroyers, again, are limited in their turn ; 
The moment they become too numerous, and carry 
their devastations too far, their food fails them, and, 
in their conflicts for the supplies that remain, they 
extinguish each other, or die of starvation. Nature 
seems averse from inflicting death extensively by 
starvation, probably because it impairs the contitu- 
tion long before it extinguishes life, and has the 
tendency to produce degeneracy in the race. It 
may be remarked, also, speculatively, that herbivo- 
rous animals must have existed in considerable 
numbers before the carnivorous began to exercise 
their functions ; for many of the former must die, 
that one of the latter may live ; if a single sheep 
and a single tiger had been placed together at first, 
the tiger would have eaten up the sheep at a few 
meals, and died itself of starvation, in a brief space 
afterwards. In natural decay, the organs are worn 
out by mere age, and the animal sinks into gradual 



188 ORGANIC LAWS. 

insensibility, unconscious that dissolution awaits it. 
Further, the wolf, the tiger, the lion, and other 
beasts of prey, instituted by the Creator as instru- 
ments of violent death, are provided, in addition to 
Destructiveness, with large organs of Cautiousness 
and Secretiveness, that prompt them to steal upon 
their victims with the unexpected suddenness of a 
mandate of annihilation, and they are impelled also 
to inflict death in the most instantaneous and least 
painful method ; the tiger and lion spring from 
their cover with the rapidity of the thunderbolt, 
and one blow of their tremendous paws, inflicted at 
the junction of the head with the neck, produces 
instantaneous death. The eagle is taught to strike 
its sharp beak into the spine of the birds which it 
devours, and their agony endures scarcely for an 
instant. It has been objected, that the cat plays 
with the unhappy mouse, and prolongs its tortures ; 
but the cat that does so, is the pampered and well 
fed inhabitant of a kitchen ; the cat of nature is 
too eager to devour, to indulge in such luxurious 
gratifications of Destructiveness and Secretiveness. 
It kills in a moment, and eats. Here, then, is ac- 
tually a regularly organized process for withdraw- 
ing individuals of the lower animals from existence, 
almost by a fiat of destruction, and thereby making 
way for a succession of other occupants. 

Man is not so merciful towards the lower crea- 
tures : but he might be so. Suppose the sheep in 
the hands of man were to be guillotined, and not 
maltreated before its execution, the creature would 



DEATH. 189 

never know that it had ceased to live. And, by 
the law which I have already explained, man does 
not with impunity add one unnecessary pang to 
the death of the lower animals. In the brutal 
butcher who inflicts torments on calves, sheep, and 
cattle, while driving them to the slaughter, and 
who puts them to death in the way supposed to 
be most conducive to the gratification of his Ac- 
quisitiveness, such as bleeding them to death, by 
successive stages, prolonged for days, to whiten 
their flesh, — the animal faculties of Destructive- 
ness, Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, &c, predomi- 
nate so decidedly in activity, over the moral and 
intellectual powers, that he is necessarily exclud- 
ed from all the enjoyments attendant on the supre- 
macy of the human faculties; he, besides, goes 
into society under the influence of the same base 
combination, and suffers at every hand animal 
retaliation, so that he does not escape with im- 
punity for his outrages against the moral law. 
Here, then, we can perceive nothing malevolent 
in the institution of death, in so far as regards the 
lower animals. A pang certainly does attend it ; 
but while Destructiveness must be recognized in 
the pain, Benevolence is equally perceptible in 
its effects. 

I mentioned formerly, that the organic law rises 
above the physical, and the moral and intellectual 
law above the organic ; and the present occasion 
affords an additional illustration of this fact. Un- 
der the physical law, no remedial process is insti- 
12 



190 ORGANIC LAWS. 

tuted to arrest, or restore, against the conse- 
quences of infringement. If a mirror falls, and 
is smashed, by. the physical law it remains ever 
after in fragments; if a ship sinks, it lies still at 
the bottom of the ocean, chained down by the 
law of gravitation. Under the organic law, on 
the other hand, a distinct remedial process is 
established. If a tree is blown over, every root 
that remains in the ground will double its exer- 
tions to preserve life ; if a branch is lopped off, 
new branches will shoot out in its place ; if a leg 
in an animal is broken, the bone will reunite ; if a 
muscle is severed, it will grow together; if an 
artery is obliterated, the neighboring arteries 
will enlarge their dimensions, and perform its 
functions. The Creator, however, not to encour- 
age animals to abuse this benevolent institution, 
has established pain as an attendant on infringe- 
ment of the organic law, and made thorn suffer 
for the violation of it, even while he restores them. 
It is under this law that death has received its 
organic pangs. Instant death is not attended 
with pain of any perceptible duration ; and it is 
only when a lingering death occurs in youth and 
middle age, that the suffering is severe ; dissolu- 
tion, however, does not occur at these periods as 
a direct and intentional result of the organic laws 
but as the consequence of infringement of them 
under the fair and legitimate operation of these 
laws, the individual whose constitution was at 
first sound, and whose life has been in accordance 



DEATH. 191 

with their dictates, .lives till old age fairly wears 
out his organized frame, and then the pang of 
expiration is little perceptible .* The pains of 
premature death, then, are the punishments of 
infringement of the organic law, and the object 
of that chastisement probably is to impress upon 
us the necessity of obeying them that we may 
live, and to prevent our abusing the remedial 
process inherent to a great extent in our con- 
stitution. 

Let us now view death as an institution ap- 
pointed to man. If it be true, that the organic 
constitution of man, when sound in its elements 
and preserved in accordance with the organic 
laws, is fairly calculated to endure in health from 
infancy to old age, and that death when it occurs 

* The following table is copied from an interesting article 
by Mr William Fraser, on the History and Constitution of 
Benefit or Friendly Societies, published in the Edinburgh 
Npw Philosophical Journal for October, 1827, and is deduced 
from Returns by Friendly Societies in Scotland for virious 
years, from 1750 to 1821. It shows how much sickness is 
dependent on age. 

Average Sickness for each Individual. 



Age. 
Under 20 


Weeks and 
Decimals 

0.3797 


Weeks. 



Days. 
2 


Hours. 
16 


Proportion of Sick 
Members. 

1 in 136.95 


20-30 


0.5916 





4 


3 


1 ... 87.89 


30-40 


0.6865 





4 


19 


1 ... 75.74 


40-5 > 


1.0273 


1 





4 


1 ... 50.61 


50-60 


1.8S06 


1 


6 


3 


1 ... 27.65 


60-70 


5.6337 


5 


4 


10 


1 ... 9.23 



Above 70 16.5417 16 3 19 1 ... 3.14 



192 ORGANIC LAWS. 

during the early or middle periods of life, is the 
consequences of departures from the physical 
and organic laws, it follows, that, even in prema- 
ture death, a benevolent principle is discernible. 
Although the remedial process restores animals 
from moderate injuries, yet the very nature of the 
organic law must place a limit to it. If life had 
been preserved, and health restored, after the 
brain had been blown to atoms, by a bomb shell, 
as effectually as a leg that is broken, and a fin- 
ger that is cut are healed, this would have been an 
actual abrogation of the organic law ; and all the 
curbs which that law imposes on the lower pro- 
pensities, and all the incitements which the ob- 
servance of it affords to the higher sentiments, 
and intellect, would have been lost. The limit, 
then, is this ; that any departure from the law 
against which restoration is permitted, shall be 
moderate in extent, and shall not involve, to a 
great degree, any organ essential to life, such as 
the brain, the lungs, the stomach, or intestines. 
The very maintenance of the law, with all its ad- 
vantages, requires that restoration from grievous 
derangement of these organs should not be per- 
mitted. When we reflect on the hereditary trans" 
mission of qualities to children, we clearly per 
ceive benevolence to the race in the institution, 
which cuts short the life of an individual in whose 
person essential organs are so deeply diseased by 
departures from the organic law, as to be beyond 
the limits of the remedial process ; for the exten- 
sion of the punishment of his errors over an innu- 



DEATH. 193 

merable posterity is thereby prevented. In pre- 
mature death, then, we see two objects accom- 
plished ; first, the individual sufferer is withdrawn 
from agonies which could serve no beneficial 
end to himself; he has transgressed the limits 
of recovery, and prolonged life would be protract- 
ed misery ; secondly, the race is guaranteed from 
the future transmission of his disease by hereditary 
descent. 

The disciple of Mr Owen, formerly alluded to, 
wholiad grievously transgressed the organic law, 
and suffered a punishment of equal intensity, ob- 
served, when in the midst of his agony, — ' Philos- 
ophers have urged the institution of death, as an 
argument against divine goodness, but not one of 
them could experience, for five minutes, the pain 
which f now endure, without looking upon it as a 
most merciful arrangement. I have departed 
from the natural institutions, and suffer the pun- 
ishment ; but, in death, I see only the Creator's 
benevolent hand, stretched out to terminate my ag- 
onies, when they cease to serve any beneficial 
end.' On this principle, the death of a feeble 
and sickly child is an act of mercy to it. It with- 
draws a being, in whose person the organic laws 
have been violated, from useless suffering; cutting 
short, thereby, also, the transmission of its imper- 
fections to posterity. If, then, the organic insti- 
tutions which inflict pain and disease as punish- 
ments for transgressing them, are founded in be- 
nevolence and wisdom; and, if death, in the early 



194 ORGANIC LAWS. 

and middle periods of life, is an arrangement 
for withdrawing the transgressor from further suf- 
fering, after return to obedience is impossible, 
and protecting the race from the consequences of 
his errors, it also is in itself wise and benevolent. 
This, then, leaves us only death in old age as a 
natural and unavoidable institution of the Crea- 
tor. It will not be denied, that, if old persons, 
when their powers of enjoyment are fairly exhaust- 
ed, and their cup of pleasure full, could be remov- 
ed from this world, as we have supposed the lower 
animals to be. in an instant, and without pain or 
consciousness, to make way for a fresh and vigorous 
offspring, about to run the career which the old 
have terminated, there would be no lack of benev- 
olence and justice in the arrangement. At pres- 
ent, while we live in habitual ignorance and neg- 
lect of the organic institutions, death probably 
comes upon us with more pain and agony, even in 
advanced life, than might be its legitimate accom- 
paniment, if we placed ourselves in accordance 
with these ; so that we are not now in a condition 
to ascertain the natural quantum of pain necessari- 
ly attendant on death. Judging from analogy, we 
may conclude, that the close of a long life, founded 
at first, and afterwards spent, in accordance with 
the Creator's laws, would not be accompanied with 
great organic suffering, but that an insensible decay 
would steal upon the senses. Be this, however, as 
it may, I observe, in the next place, that as the 
Creator has bestowed on man animal faculties that 



DEATH. 195 

fear death, and reason that carries home to him 
the conviction that he must die, it is an interesting 
inquiry, Whether he has provided any natural 
means of relief, from the consequences of this 
combination of terrors ? He has bestowed moral 
sentiments on man, and arranged the whole of his 
existence on the principles of their supremacy ; 
and these, when duly cultivated and enlightened, 
are calculated to withdraw from him the terrors of 
death, in the same manner as unconsciousness ot 
its existence saves the lower animals from its hor- 
rors. 

In regard to the lower animals killed by vio- 
lence, if reason sees, on the one hand, a momen- 
tary pang in parting with life, it perceives the con- 
tinued existence and enjoyment of beasts of prey, 
as an advantage attending it on the other, so that 
every animal that is devoured ministers to ihe con- 
tinued life of another. The process is still one of 
a transfer of existence. 

In regard to man, again, the moral sentiments 
and intellect perceive, 

1st. That Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, 
and Adhesiveness, are provided with direct objects 
of gratification in consequence of the institution of 
death. If the same individuals had lived here for- 
ever, there would have been no field for the enjoy- 
ment that flows from the domestic union, and the 
rearing of offspring. The very institution of these 
propensities prove, that producing and rearing 
young, form part of the design of creation ; and 



196 ORGANIC LAWS. 

the successive production of young appears neces- 
sarily to imply removal of the old. 

2dly. All the other faculties would have been 
limited in their gratifications. Conceive, for a mo- 
ment, how much exercise is afforded to our intel- 
lectual and moral ^powers, in acquiring knowledge, 
communicating it to the young, and in providing 
for their enjoyments ; also, what a delightful exer- 
cise of the higher sentiments is implied in the in- 
tercourse between the aged and the young ; all 
which pleasures would have been unknown, if 
there had been no young iu existence, which there 
could not have been, without a succession of indi- 
viduals. 

3dly. Constituted as man is, the succession of 
individuals withdraws beings whose physical and 
mental constitutions have run their course, and 
become impaired in sensibility, and substitutes, in- 
their place, fresh and vigorous minds and bodies, 
far better adapted for the enjoyment of creation. 

4thly. If I am right in the position, that the or- 
ganic laws transmit, in an increasing ratio, the 
qualities most active in the parents to their off- 
spring, the law of succession provides for a far 
higher degree of improvement in the race than 
could ever have been reached by the permanency 
of a single generation. 

Let us inquire, then, how the moral sentiments 
are affected by death in old age, as a natural insti- 
tution. 

Benevolence, glowing with a disinterested de- 



ORGANIC LAWS. 197 

sire for the diffusion and boundless increase of 
enjoyment, utters no complaint against death in 
old age, as a transference of existence from a being 
impaired in its capacity for usefulness and pleas- 
ure, to one fresh and vigorous in all its powers, 
and fitted to carry forward, to a higher point of 
improvement, every beneficial measure previously 
begun. Conscientiousness, if thoroughly enlight- 
ened, perceives no infringement of justice in a 
guest, satiated with enjoyment, being called on to 
retire from the banquet, to permit a stranger with 
a keener and more youthful appetite to partake ; 
and Veneration, when instructed by intellect that 
this is the institution of the Creator, and made ac- 
quainted with its objects, bows in humble acquies- 
cense to the law. Now, if these powers have ac- 
quired, in any individual, that complete supremacy 
which they are clearly intended to hold, he will be 
placed by them as much above the terror of death 
as a natural institution, as the lower animals are, 
by being ignorant of its existence. And unless 
the case were so, man would, by the very knowl- 
edge of death, be rendered, during his whole life, 
more miserable than they. 

In these observations, I have said nothing of 
the prospects of a future existence as a palliative 
of the evils of dissolution, because I was bound to 
regard death, in the first instance, as the result of 
the organic law, and to treat of it as such. But no 
one who considers that the prospects of a life to 
come, are directly addressed to Veneration, Hope, 



198 ORGANIC LAWS. 

Benevolence, and Intellect, can fail to perceive 
that this consolation also is clearly founded on the 
principle, that supremacy in the sentiments is in- 
tended by the Creator to protect man from its 
terrors. 

The true view of death, then, as a natural insti- 
tution, is, that it is an essential part of the very 
system of organization ; that birth, growing, and 
arriving at maturity, as completely imply decay, 
and death in old age, as morning and noon imply 
evening and night, as spring and summer imply 
harvest, or as the source of a river implies a ter- 
mination of it. Besides, organized beings are 
constituted by the Creator to be the food of other 
organized beings, so that some must die that oth- 
ers may live. Man, for instance, cannot live on 
stones, or earth, or water, which are not organized, 
but on vegetable and animal substances ; so that 
death is as much, and as essentially, an inherent 
part of organization as life itself. If vegetables, 
animals, and men, had been destined for a dura- 
tion like that of the mountains, — instead of crea- 
ting a primitive pair of each, and endowing these 
with extensive powers of reproduction, so as to 
usher into existence young beings to grow up to 
maturity by insensible degrees, we may presume, 
from analogy, that the Creator would have furnish- 
ed the world with its definite complement of liv- 
ing beings, perfect at first in all their parts and 
functions, and that these would have remained, 
like hills, without diminution, and without in- 
crease. 



ORGANIC LAWS. 199 

To prevent, then, all chance of being misappre- 
hended, I repeat, that I do not at all allude to the 
state of the soul or mind, after death, but merely 
to the dissolution of organized bodies; that, ac- 
cording to the soundest view which I am able to 
obtain of the natural law, pain and death in youth 
and middle age, in the human species, are conse- 
quences of departure from the Creator's laws ; 
while death in old age, by insensible decay, is an 
essential and apparently indispensable part of the 
system of organized existence ; that this arrange- 
ment admits of the succession of individuals, sub- 
stituting the young and vigorous for the feeble 
and decayed ; that it is directly the means by 
which organized beings live, and indirectly the 
means by which Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, 
and a variety of our other faculties obtain gratifica- 
tion ; that it admits of the race ascending to a 
great extent in the scale of improvement, both in 
their organic and mental qualities ; that the mor- 
al sentiments, when supreme in activity, and en- 
lightened by intellect, so as to perceive its design 
and consequences are calculated to place man in 
harmony with it ; while religion addresses its con- 
solation to the same faculties, and completes what 
reason leaves undone. 

If the views now unfolded be correct, death, in 
old age, will never be abolished, as long as man 
continues an organized being; but pain and pre- 
mature death will constantly decrease, in the ex- 
act ratio of his obedience to the physical and or- 



200 ORGANIC LAWS. 

ganic laws. It is interesting to observe, that 
there is already some evidence of this process be- 
ing actually in progress. About seventy years ago, 
tables of the average duration of life, in England, 
were compiled for the use of the Life Insurance 
Companies ; and from them it appears, that the av- 
erage of life was then twentyeight years ; that is, 
1000 persons being born, and the years which each 
of them lived being added together, and divided by 
1000, gave twentyeight to each. By recent tables, 
it appears that the average is now thirtytwo years 
to each; that is to say, by superior morality, clean- 
liness, knowledge, and general obedience to the 
Creator's institutions, fewer individuals now perish 
in infancy, youth, and middle age, than did seventy 
years ago. Some persons have said, that the differ- 
ence arises from errors in compiling the old tables, 
and that the superior habits of the people are not 
the cause. It is probable, however, that there may 
be a portion of truth in both views. There may be 
some errors in the old tables, but it is quite natu- 
ral that increasing knowledge and stricter obe- 
dience to the organic laws, should diminish the 
number of premature deaths. If this idea be cor- 
rect, the average duration of life should go on in- 
creasing ; and our successors, two centuries hence, 
may probably attain to an average of forty years, 
and then ascribe to errors in our tables our low 
average of thirtytwo.* 

* While the above paragraph was in the press, an inter- 
esting article on the ' Diminished Mortality in England,' 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAWS. 201 



SECT. III. — CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGE- 
MENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 

We come now to consider the Moral Law, 
which is proclaimed by the higher sentiments and 
intellect acting harmoniously, and holding the an- 
imal propensities in subjection. In surveying the 
moral and religious codes of different nations, 
and the moral and religious opinions of different 
philosophers, every reflecting mind must have been 
struck with their diversity. Phrenology, by de- 
monstrating the differences of combination in 
their faculties, enables us to account for these va- 
rieties of sentiment. The code of morality fram- 
ed by a legislator, in whom Destructiveness, Se- 
cretiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self-esteem were 
large, and Conscientiousness, Benevolence, and 
Veneration small, would be very different from 
one instituted by another lawgiver, in whom this 
combination was reversed. In like manner, a sys- 
tem of religion, founded by an individual, in 
whom Destructiveness, Wonder, and Cautiousness 
were very large, and Veneration, Benevolence, 
and Conscientiousness deficient, would present 
views of the Supreme Being widely dissimilar to 
those which would be promulgated by a person in 
whom the last three faculties and intellect decid- 

appeared in the Scotsman newspaper, of 16th April, 1828. 
It coincides with the views of the text; and, as it proceeds 
on scientific data, it is printed in the Appendix. No. III. 



202 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

edly predominated. Phrenology shows, that the 
particular code of morality and religion, which is 
most completely in harmony with the whole facul- 
ties of the individual, will necessarily appear to 
him to be the best, while he refers only to the dic- 
tates of his individual mind, as the standard of 
right and wrong. But if we are able to show, 
that the whole scheme of external creation is ar- 
ranged in harmony with certain principles, in 
preference to others, so that enjoyment flows upon 
the individual from without, when his conduct is 
in conformity with them, and that evil overtakes 
him when he departs from them, we shall then 
obviously prove, that the former is the morality 
and religion established by the Creator ; and that 
individual men, who support different codes, must 
necessarily be deluded by imperfections in their 
own minds. That constitution of mind, also, may 
be pronounced to be the best, which harmonizes 
most completely with the morality and religion 
established by the Creator's arrangements. In 
this view, morality becomes a science, and depart- 
ures from its dictates may be demonstrated as 
practical follies, injurious to the real interest and 
happiness of the individual, just as errors in logic 
are capable of refutation to the understanding. 
Before we can be in a condition to perceive this, 
it is obvious that we must know, first, The nature 
of man, physical, animal, moral, and intellectual ; 
secondly, The relations of the different parts of 
that nature to each other ; and, thirdly, The rela- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORALLAWS. 203 

tionship of the whole to God and external objects. 
The present Essay is an attempt, (a very feeble 
and imperfect one indeed,) to arrive, by the aid of 
phrenology, at a demonstration of morality as a 
science. The interests dealt with in the investiga- 
tion are so elevating, and the effort itself is so 
delightful, that the attempt carries its own re- 
ward, however unsuccessful in its results. 

Assuming, then, that, among the faculties of the 
mind, the higher sentiments and intellect hold the 
natural supremacy, I shall endeavour to show, that 
obedience to the dictates of these powers is re- 
warded with pleasing emotions in the mental fa- 
culties themselves, and with the most beneficial 
external consequences ; whereas disobedience is 
followed by deprivation of these emotions, by 
painful feelings within the mind, and great exter- 
nal evil. 

First. Obedience is attended by pleasing emo- 
tions in the faculties. It is scarcely necessary to 
dwell on the circumstance, that every propensity, 
sentiment, and intellectual faculty, when gratified 
in harmony with all the rest, is a fountain of plea- 
sure. How many exquisite thrills of joy arise 
from Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, Acquisi- 
tiveness, Constructiveness, Love of Approbation, 
and Self-esteem, when gratified in accordance 
with the moral sentiments ; who that has ever 
poured forth the aspirations of Hope, Ideality, 
Wonder, and Veneration, directed to an object in 
whom Intellect and Conscientiousness also rejoic- 



204 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

ed, has not experienced the deep delight of such 
an exercise 1 Or, who is a stranger to the grate- 
ful pleasures attending an active Benevolence] 
Turning to the intellect, again, what pleasures 
are afforded by the scenery of nature, by painting, 
poetry, and music, to those who possess the com- 
bination of faculties related to these studies 1 
And how rich a feast does not philosophy yield to 
those who possess high reflecting organs, combin- 
ed with Concentrativeness and Conscientiousness ? 
The reader is requested, therefore, to keep steadi- 
ly in view, that these exquisite rewards are attach- 
ed by the Creator to the active exercise of our 
faculties, in accordance with the moral law ; and 
that one punishment, clear, obvious and undeni- 
able, inflicted on those who neglect or infringe 
the law, is deprivation of these pleasures. This 
is a consideration very little attended to ; be- 
cause mankind, in general, live in such habitual 
neglect of the moral law, that they have, to a very 
partial extent, experienced its rewards, and do 
not know the enjoyment they are deprived of by 
its infringement. Before its full measure can be 
judged of, the mind must be instructed in its own 
constitution, in that of external objects, and in 
the relationship established between it and them, 
and between it and the Creator. Until a tolera- 
bly distinct perception of these truths is obtain- 
ed, the faculties cannot enjoy repose, nor act in 
full vigor or harmony : while, for example, our 
forefathers regarded the marsh fevers, to which 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 205 

they were subjected, from deficient draining of 
their fields, and the outrages on person and pro- 
perty, attendant on the wars waged by the En- 
glish against the Scots, or by one feudal lord 
against another, even on their own soil, not as pun- 
ishments for particular infringements of the organ- 
ic and moral laws, to be removed by obedience to 
these laws, but as inscrutable dispensations of 
God's providence, which it behoved them meekly 
to endure, but not to avert, — so long as such no- 
tions were entertained, the full enjoyment which 
the moral and intellectual faculties were fairly 
calculated by the Creator to afford, could not be 
experienced. Benevolence would pine in dissat- 
isfaction ; Veneration would flag in its devotions, 
and Conscientiousness would suggest endless sur- 
mises of disorder and injustice in a scheme of 
creation, under which such evils occurred, and 
were left without a remedy ; the full tide of moral, 
religious, and intellectual enjoyment could not 
possibly flow, until views, more in accordance 
with the constitution and desires of the moral fa- 
culties were obtained. The same evil afflicts 
mankind still to a prodigious extent. How is it 
possible for the Hindoo, Mussulman, Chinese, or 
the native American, while they continue to wor- 
ship deities, whose qualities outrage Benevo- 
lence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, — and 
remain in profound ignorance of almost all the 
Creator's natural institutions, in consequence of 
infringing which they suffer punishment without 
13 



206 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

ceasing, to form even a conception of the gratifi- 
cations which the moral and intellectual nature of 
man is calculated to enjoy, when exercised in 
harmony with the Creator's real character and in- 
stitutions? This operation of the moral law is 
not the less real, because many do not recognize 
it. Sight is not a les3 excellent gift to those 
who see, because some men born blind have no 
conception of the extent of pleasure and advan- 
tage from which the want of it cuts them off. 

The qualities manifested by the Creator may 
be inferred from the works of creation ; but it is 
obvious, that, to arrive at the soundest views, we 
would require to know his institutions thoroughly. 
To a grossly ignorant people, who suffer hardly 
from transgression of his laws, the Deity will appear 
infinitely more severe and mysterious than to an 
enlightened nation who know them, avoid the 
penalties of infringement, and trace the principles 
of his government through many parts of his works. 
The character of the Divine Being, under the natu- 
ral system, will thus go on rising in exact propor- 
tion as his works shall be understood. The low 
and miserable conceptions of God formed by the 
vulgar Greeks and Romans, were the reflections of 
their own ignorance of natural, moral, and political 
science. The discovery and improvement of phre- 
nology must necessarily have a great effect on natu- 
ral religion. Before phrenology was known, the 
moral and intellectual constitution of man was 
unascertained ; — in consequence, the relations of 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 207 

external nature towards it could not be competently 
judged of; and, while these were involved in ob- 
scurity, many of the ways of Providence must 
have appeared mysterious and severe, which in 
themselves are quite the reverse. Again, as bodily 
suffering and mental perplexity would bear a pro- 
portion to this ignorance, the character of God 
would appear to the natural eye in that condition, 
much more unfavorable than it will do after these 
clouds of darkness shall have passed away. 

Some persons, in their great concernment about 
a future life, are liable to overlook the practical 
direction of the mind in the present. When we 
consider the nature and objects of the mental facul- 
ties, we perceive that a great number of them have 
the most obvious and undeniable reference to this 
life; for example, Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Acquisitive- 
ness, Secretiveness, Cautiousness, Self-esteem, and 
Love of Approbation, with Size, Form, Color, 
Weight, Tune, Wit, and probably other faculties, 
stand in such evident relationship to this particular 
world, with its moral and physical arrangements, that 
if they were not capable of legitimate application 
here, it would be difficult to assign a reason for 
their being bestowed on us. We possess also 
Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, 
Conscientiousness, and reflecting Intellect, all of 
which appear to be particularly adapted to a high- 
er sphere. But the important consideration is, that 
here on earth these two sets of faculties are com- 



208 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

bined ; and on the same principle that led Sir Isaac 
Newton to infer the combustibility of the diamond, 
I am disposed to expect that the external world, 
when its constitution and relations shall be suffi- 
ciently understood, will be found to be in harmony 
with all our faculties, and of course that the charac- 
ter of the Deity, as unfolded by the works of crea- 
tion, will more and more gratify our moral and intel- 
lectual powers, in proportion as knowledge advances. 
The structure of the eye is admirably adapted to 
the laws of light ; that of the ear to the laws of 
sound ; that of the muscles to the laws of gravi- 
tation ; and it would be strange if our mental con- 
stitution was not as wisely adapted to the general 
order of the external world. 

This principle, then, is universal, and admits of 
no exception, That inactivity and want of power, 
in every faculty, is attended with deprivation of 
the pleasures attendant on its vivacious exercise. 
He who is so deficient in Tune that he cannot dis- 
tinguish melody, is cut off from a vast source of 
gratification enjoyed by him who possesses that 
organ vigorous and highly cultivated ; and the same 
principle holds in the case of every other organ and 
faculty. Criminals and profligates of every de- 
scription, therefore from the very constitution of 
human nature, are excluded from great enjoyments 
attending virtue ; and this is the first natural punish- 
ment to which they are inevitably liable. Persons 
also, who are ignorant of the constitutions of their 
own minds, and the relations between external ob- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 209 

jects, not only suffer many direct evils on this ac- 
count ; but, through the consequent inactivity of 
their faculties, are besides, deprived of many exalt- 
ed enjoyments. The works of creation, and the 
character of the Deity, are the legitimate objects of 
our highest powers ; and hence he who is blind to 
their qualities loses nearly the whole benefit of his 
moral and intellectual existence. If there is any 
one to whom these gratifications are unknown, or 
appear trivial, he must either, to a very considerable 
degree, be still under the dominion of the animal 
propensities, or his views of the Creator's character 
and institutions, must not be in harmony with the 
natural dictates of the moral sentiments and intel- 
lect. 

But, in the second place, as the world is arrang- 
ed on the principle of the supremacy of the moral 
sentiments and intellect, observance of the moral 
law is attended with external advantages, and in- 
fringement of it with positive evil consequences ; 
and, from this constitution, arises the second natural 
punishment of misconduct. 

Let us trace the advantages of obedience. — In 
the domestic circle ; if we preserve habitually Be- 
nevolence, Conscientiousness, Veneration, and In- 
tellect supreme, it is quite undeniable, that we shall 
raise the moral and intellectual faculties of chil- 
dren, servants, and assistants, to love us, and to 
yield us willing service, obedience, and aid. Our 
commands will then be reasonable, mild, and easily 
executed, and the commerce will be that of love. 



210 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

With our equals, again, in society, what would we 
not give for a friend in whom we were perfectly 
convinced of the supremacy of the sentiments ; 
what love, confidence, and delight, would we not 
repose in him? To a merchant, physician, lawyer, 
magistrate, or an individual in any public employ- 
ment, how invaluable would be the habitual supre- 
macy of the sentiments 1 The Creator has given 
different talents to different individuals, and limited 
our powers, so that we execute any work best by 
confining our attention to one department of la- 
bor, — an arrangement which amounts to a direct 
institution of separate trades and professions. Un- 
der the natural laws, then, the manufacturer may 
pursue his calling with the entire approbation of all 
the moral sentiments, for he is dedicating his talents 
to supply the wants of his fellow men ; and how 
much more successful will he not be, if his every 
wish is accompanied by the desire to act benevo- 
lently and honestly towards those who are to con- 
sume and pay for the products of his labor 1 He 
cannot gratify his Acquisitiveness half so success- 
fully by any other method. The same remark applies 
to the merchant, the lawyer, and physician. The 
lawyer and physician, whose whole spirits breathe 
a disinterested desire to consult, as a paramount 
object, the best interests of their clients and patients, 
not only obtain the direct reward of gratifying 
their own moral faculties, which is no slight enjoy- 
ment, but they reap a positive gratification to their 
Self-esteem and love of Approbation, in a high 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 211 

and well founded reputation, and to their Acquisi- 
tiveness, in increasing emolument, not grudgingly 
paid, but willingly offered, from minds that feel the 
worth of the services bestowed. 

There are three conditions required by the mo- 
ral and intellectual law, which must all be observed 
to ensure its rewards; 1st. The department of 
industry selected must be really useful to human 
beings: Benevolence demands this; 2dly. The 
quantum of labor bestowed must bear a just pro- 
portion to the natural demand for the commodity 
produced ; Intellect requires this ; and, 3dly. In 
our social connexions, we must imperatively attend 
to the organic law, that different individuals possess 
different developements of the brain, and in con- 
quence different natural talents and dispositions, and 
we must rely on each only to the extent warranted 
by his natural endowment. 

If, then, an individual has received, at birth, a 
sound organic constitution, and favorably devel- 
oped brain, and if he live in accordance with the 
physical, the organic, the moral, and intellectual 
laws, it appears to me that, in the constitution of 
the world, he has received an assurance from the 
Creator, of provision for his animal wants, and a 
high enjoyment in the legitimate exercise of his 
various mental powers. 

I have already observed, that, before we can 
obey the Creator's institutions, we must know 
them, and that the science which teaches the phy- 
sical laws is natural philosophy ; that the organic 



212 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

laws belong to the department of anatomy and 
physiology ; and I now add, that it is the business 
of the political economist to unfold the kinds of 
industry that are really necessary to the welfare 
of mankind, and the degrees of labor that will 
meet with a just reward. The leading object of 
political economy, as a science, is to increase en- 
joyment, by directing the application of industry. 
To attain this end, however, it is obviously neces- 
sary that the nature of man, — the constitution of 
the physical world, — and the relations between 
these, should be known. Hitherto, the knowledge 
of the first of these elementary parts has been very 
deficient, and, in consequence, the whole super- 
structure has been weak and unproductive, in 
comparison of what it may become, when founded 
on a more perfect basis. Political economists 
have never dreamt, that the world is arranged on 
the principle of supremacy of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect ; and, consequently, that, to 
render man happy, his leading pursuits must be 
such as loill exercise and gratify these powers, and 
that his life will necessarily be miserable, if de- 
voted entirely to the production of wealth. They 
have proceeded on the notion, that the accumula- 
tion of wealth is the summum bonum ; but all his- 
tory teaches, that national happiness does not in- 
crease in proportion to national riches ; and until 
they shall perceive and teach, that intelligence 
and morality are the foundation of all lasting 
prosperity, they will never interest the great body 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 213 

of mankind, nor give a valuable direction to their 
efforts. 

If the views contained in the present Essay be 
sound, it will become a leading object with future 
masters in that science, to demonstrate the neces- 
sity of civilized man limiting his physical, and in- 
creasing his moral and intellectual occupations, as 
the only means of saving himself from ceaseless 
punishment under the natural laws. 

The idea of men, in general, being taught nat- 
ural philosophy, anatomy, and physiology, politi- 
cal economy, and the other sciences that expound 
the natural laws, has been sneered at, as utterly 
absurd and ridiculous. But I would ask, in what 
occupations are human beings so urgently engag- 
ed, that they have no leisure to bestow on the 
study of the Creator's laws? A course of natural 
philosophy would occupy sixty or seventy hours 
in the delivery ; a course of anatomy and physiology 
the same ; and a course of phrenology can be de- 
livered pretty fully in forty hours ! These, twice 
or thrice repeated, would serve to initiate the 
student so that he could afterwards advance in the 
same paths, by the aid of observation and books. 
Is life, then, so brief, and are our hours so urgent- 
ly occupied by higher and more important duties, 
that we cannot afford those pittances of time to 
learn the laws that regulate our existence ! No. 
The only difficulty is in obtaining the desire for 
the knowledge ; in seeing the necessity and ad- 
vantage of it, and then time will not be wanting. 



214 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

No idea can be more preposterous, than that of 
human beings having no time to study and obey 
the natural institutions. These laws punish so 
severely, when neglected, that they cause the 
offender to lose tenfold more time in undergoing 
his chastisement, than would be requisite to obey 
them. A gentleman extensively engaged in busi- 
ness, whose nervous and digestive systems have 
been impaired by neglect of the organic laws, 
was desired to walk in the open air at least one 
hour a-day ; to repose from all exertion, bodily and 
mental, for one full hour after breakfast, and 
another full hour after dinner, because the brain 
cannot expend its energy in thinking and in aiding 
digestion at the same time ; and to practise mod- 
eration in diet ; which last he regularly observed ; 
but he laughed at the very idea of his having three 
hours a-day to spare for attention to his health. 
The reply was, that the organic laws admit of no 
exception, and that he must either obey them, or 
take the consequences ; but that the time lost by 
the punishment would be double or treble that 
requisite for obedience ; and, accordingly, the fact 
was so. Instead of his attending an appoint- 
ment, it is quite usual for him to send a note, per- 
haps, at two in the afternoon, in these terms : — 
' I was. so distressed with headache last night, 
that I never closed my eyes, and to-day I am still 
incapable of being out of bed.' On other occa- 
sions, he is out of bed, but apologises for incapacity 
to attend to business, on account of an intolerable 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 215 

pain in the region of the stomach. In short, if 
the hours lost in these painful sufferings were added 
together, and distributed over the days when he is 
able for duty, he would find them far outnumber 
those which would suffice for obedience to the 
organic laws, and with this difference in the 
re suits ; by neglect he loses both his hours and his 
enjoyment ; whereas, by obedience, he would be 
rewarded by aptitude for business, and a pleasing 
consciousness of existence. 

We shall understand the operation of the moral 
and intellectual laws, however, more completely, 
by attending to the evils which arise from neglect 
of them. 

As to Individuals. At present, the almost 
universal persuasion of civilized man, is, that hap- 
piness consists in the possession of wealth, power 
and external splendor ; objects related to the ani- 
mal faculties and intellect much more than to the 
moral sentiments. In consequence, each individ- 
ual sets out in the pursuit of these as the chief 
business of his life ; and, in the ardor of the 
chase, he recognizes no limitations on the means 
which he may employ, except those imposed by the 
municipal law. He does not perceive or ac- 
knowledge the existence of natural laws, deter- 
mining not only the sources of his happiness, but 
the steps by which it may be attained. From this 
moral and intellectual blindness, merchants and 
manufacturers, in numberless instances, hasten to 
be rich beyond the course of nature ; that is to 



216 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

say, they engage in enterprises far exceeding the 
extent of their capital, or capacity ; they place 
their property in the hands of debtors, whose nat- 
ural talents and morality are so low, that they 
ought never to have been trusted with a shilling ; 
they send their goods to sea without insuring them, 
or leave them uninsured in their own warehouses ; 
they ask pecuniary accommodation from other 
merchants, to enable them to carry on their un- 
due speculations, and become security for them in 
return, and both fall in consequence of blindly 
following acquisitiveness to extremities ; or they 
live in splendor and extravagance, far beyond 
the extent of the natural return of their capital 
and talents. In every one of these instances, the 
calamity is obviously the consequence of infringe- 
ment of the moral and intellectual law, The law- 
yer, medical practitioner, or probationer in the 
church, who is disappointed in his reward, will be 
found erroneously to have placed himself in a pro- 
fession, for which his natural talents and dispo- 
sitions did not fit him, or to have pursued his 
vocation under the guidance chiefly of the lower 
propensities, preferring selfishness to honorable re- 
gard for the interests of his employers. Want of 
success in these professions, appears to me to be 
owing, in a high degree, to three causes ; first, 
The brain being too small, or constitutionally lym- 
phatic, so that the mind does not act with suffi- 
cient energy to make an impression ; secondly, 
some particular organs indispensably requisite to 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 217 

success, being very deficient, as Language, or 
Causality, in a lawyer, the first rendering him in- 
capable of ready utterance, and the second desti- 
tute of that intuitive sagacity, which sees at a 
glance the bearing of the facts and principles 
founded on by his adversary, so as to estimate 
the just inferences that follow, and to point them 
out. A lawyer, who is weak in this power, ap- 
pears to his client like a pilot who does not know 
the shoals and the rocks. His deficiency is per- 
ceived whenever difficulty presents itself, and he 
is pronounced unsafe to take charge of great in- 
terests : he is then passed by, and suffers the re- 
sponsibility of an erroneous choice of profession ; 
or, thirdly, Predominance of the animal and self- 
ish faculties. The client and the patient discrim- 
inate instinctively between the cold, pithless, but 
pretending manner of Acquisitiveness and Love 
of Approbation, and the unpretending, genuine 
warmth of Benevolence, Veneration, and Consci- 
entiousness ; and they discover very speedily that 
the intellect inspired by the latter sees more clear- 
ly, and manages more successfully, their interests, 
than when animated only by the former ; the vic- 
tim of selfishness either never rises, or sinks, 
wondering why his merits are neglected. 

In all these instances, the failure of the mer- 
chant, and the bad success of the lawyer, &c. are 
the consequences of having infringed the natural 
laws ; so that the evil they suffer is the punish- 
ment for having failed in a great duty, not only 
to society, but to themselves. 



21S CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

The greatest difficulties, however, present them- 
selves, in tracing the operation of the moral and 
intellectual laws, in the wide field of social life. 
An individual may be made to comprehend how, 
if he commits an error, he should suffer a partic- 
ular punishment ; but when calamity overtakes 
whole classes of the community, each person ab- 
solves himself from all share of the blame, and 
regards himself as simply the victim of a general 
but inscrutable visitation. Let us, then, examine 
briefly the Social Law. 

In regarding the human faculties, we perceive 
that numberless gratifications spring from the so- 
cial state. The muscles of a single individual 
could not rear the habitations, build the ships, 
forge the anchors, construct the machinery, or, 
in short, produce the countless enjoyments that 
everywhere surround us, in consequence of men 
being constituted, so as instinctively to combine 
their powers and skill, to obtain a common end. 
Here, then, are prodigious advantages resulting 
directly from the social law ; but, in the next 
place, social intercourse is the means of affording 
direct gratification to a variety of our mental fac- 
ulties. If we live in solitude, the propensities of 
Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, 
Love of Approbation, the sentiments of Benev- 
olence, Veneration, Conscientiousness. Wonder 
Language, and the reflecting faculties, would be 
deprived, some of them absolutely, and others of 
them nearly, of all opportunities of gratification. 
The Bocial law, then, is the source of the highest 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 219 

delights of our nature, and its institution indicates 
the greatest benevolence and wisdom towards us, 
in the Creator. 

Still, however, this law does not suspend or sub- 
vert the laws instituted for man as an individual. 
If we imagine an individual to go to sea for his 
own gratification in a ship, the natural laws re- 
quire that his intellectual faculties shall be in- 
structed in navigation, also in the nature of the 
coasts and seas which he traverses ; that he shall 
know and avoid the shoals, currents, and eddies; 
that he shall trim his canvas in proportion to the 
gale ; and that his animal faculties shall be so 
much under subjection to his moral sentiments, 
that he shall not abandon himself to drunkenness, 
sloth, or any animal indulgence, when the natu- 
ral laws require him to be watchful at his duty. 
If he obey the natural laws, he will be safe as an 
individual ; and if he disobey them he will be 
drowned.* Now, if a crew and passengers de- 
sire to avail themselves of the social law, that is, 
td combine their powers and activity under one 
leader or chief, by doing which they may sail in 
a large ship, have ample stores of provisions, 
divide their labor, eujoy each other's society, 
&,c. ; and if at the same time they fulfil the moral 
and intellectual laws, by placing, in the situation 

* I waive at present the question ot storms, which he 
could not foresee, as these fall under the head of ignorance 
of natural laws, which may be subsequently discovered, 



220 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

of captain, an individual fully qualified for that 
duty, they will enjoy the reward in sailing safely, 
and in comfort ; if they disregard these laws, and 
place an individual in charge of the ship, whose 
intellectual faculties are weak, whose animal pro- 
pensities are strong, whose moral sentiments are 
in abeyance, and who, in consequence, habitually 
neglects the natural laws, then they will suffer 
the penalty in being wrecked. 

I know it will be objected that the crew and 
passengers do not appoint the captain ; but, in 
every case, except impressment in the British navy, 
they may go in, or stay out, of a particular 
ship, as they discover the captain to -possess the 
natural qualities or not. This, at present, I am 
aware, ninetynine individuals out of the hundred 
never inquire into ; but so do ninetynine out of 
the hundred neglect many of the other natural 
laws, and suffer the penalty, because their moral 
and intellectual faculties have never yet been 
instructed in their existence and effects, or train- 
ed to observe and obey them. But they have the 
power from nature of obeying them, if properly 
taught and trained ; and, besides, I give this 
merely as an illustration of the mode of operation 
of the social law. 

Another example may be given. By employ- 
ing servants, the labors of life are rendered less 
burdensome to the master; but he must employ 
individuals who know the moral law, and who 
possess the desire to act under it ; otherwise, as 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 221 

a punishment for neglecting this requisite, he may 
be robbed, cheated, or murdered in bed. Phre- 
nology presents the means of observing this law, 
in a degree quite unattainable without it, by the 
facility which it affords of discovering the natural 
talents and dispositions of individuals. 

By entering into copartnerships, merchants, 
and other persons in business, may extend their 
employment, and gain advantages beyond those 
they could reap, if laboring as individuals. But, 
by the natural law, each must take care that his 
partner knows, and is inclined to obey, the moral 
and intellectual law, as the only condition on 
which the Creator will permit him securely to 
reap the advantages of the social compact. If a 
partner in China is deficient in intellect and mo- 
ral sentiments, another in London may be utterly 
ruined. It is said that this is the innocent suf- 
fering for or along with the guilty ; but it is not 
so. It is an example of a person seeking to ob- 
tain the advantages of the social law, without 
conceiving himself bound to obey the conditions 
required by it ; the first of which is, that those 
individuals, of whose services he avails himself, 
shall observe the moral and intellectual laws. 

Let Us now advert to the calamities which over- 
take whole classes of men, or communities, under 
the social law, trace their origin, and see how far 
they are attributable to infringement of the Crea- 
tor's laws. 

If I am right in representing the whole facul- 
14 



222 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ties of man as intended by the Creator to be gra- 
tified, and the moral sentiments and intellect, as 
the higher and directing powers, with which all 
natural institutions are in harmony ; it follows, 
that if large communities of men, in their systema- 
tic conduct, habitually seek the gratification of 
the inferior propensities, and allow either no part, 
or too small and inadequate a part, of their time to 
the regular employment of the higher powers, 
they will act in direct opposition to the natural in- 
stitutions ; and will, of course, suffer the punish- 
ment in sorrow and disappointment. Now, to 
confine ourselves to our own country, it is certain 
that, until within these few years, the laboring 
population of Britain were not taught that it was 
any part of their duty, as rational creatures, to re- 
strain their propensities, so as not to multiply their 
numbers beyond the demand for their labors, and 
the supply of food for their offspring ; and up to 
the present hour this most obvious and important 
doctrine is not admitted by one in a thousand, and 
not acted upon as a practical principle by one in 
ten thousand of those whose happiness or misery 
depends on observance of it. The doctrine of 
Malthus, that 'population cannot go on perpetu- 
ally increasing, without pressing on the limits of 
the means of subsistence, and that a check of some 
kind or other must, sooner or later, be opposed to 
it, 5 just amounts to this, — that the means of sub- 
sistence are not susceptible of such rapid and un- 
limited increase as population, and in consequence 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 223 

that the Amative propensity must be restrained by 
reason, otherwise it will be checked by misery. 
This principle is in accordance with the views of 
human nature maintained in this Essay, and ap- 
plies to all the faculties ; thus Philoprogenitivenes, 
when indulged in opposition to reason leads to 
spoiling children, which is followed directly by 
misery both to them and their parents. Acquisi- 
tiveness, when uncontrolled by reason, leads to 
avarice or theft, and these again carry suffering in 
their train. 

But so far from attending to such views, the 
lives of the inhabitants of Britain generally are de- 
voted to the acquisition of wealth, of power and 
distinction, or of animal pleasure ; in other words, 
the great object of the laboring classes, is to live 
and gratify the inferior propensities ; of the mer- 
cantile and manufacturing population, to gratify 
Acquisitiveness and Self-esteem ; of the more 
intelligent class of gentlemen, to gratify Self-es- 
teem and Love of Approbation, in political, litera- 
ry, or philosophical eminence ; and of another por 
tion, to gratify Love of Approbation, by suprema- 
cy in fashion ; and these gratifications are sought 
by means not in accordance with the dictates of 
the higher sentiments, but by the joint aid of the in- 
tellect and propensities. If the supremacy of mo- 
ral sentiment and intellect be the natural law, then, 
as often observed, every circumstance connected 
with human life must be in harmony with it; 
that is to say, first, After rational restraint on pop- 



224 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ulation, and with the proper use of machinery, such 
moderate labor as will leave ample time for the 
systematic exercise of the higher powers, will suf- 
fice to provide for human wants ; and, secondly, If 
this exercise be neglected, and the time which 
ought to be dedicated to it employed in labor to 
gratify the propensities, direct evil will ensue ; and 
this accordingly appears to me to be exactly the 
result. 

By means of machinery, and the aids derived 
from science, the ground can be cultivated, and 
every imaginable necessary and luxury produced 
in ample abundance, by a moderate expenditure 
of labor by any population not in itself superabun- 
dant. If men were to stop whenever they had 
reached this point, and dedicate the residue of 
each day to moral and intellectual pursuits, the 
consequence would be, ready and steady because 
not overstocked, markets. Labor, pursued till 
it provided abundance, but not redundant super- 
fluity, would meet with a certain and just reward : 
and would yield also, a vast increase of happiness ; 
for no joy equals that which springs from the mor- 
al sentiments and intellect excited by the contem- 
plation, pursuit, and observance, of the Creator's 
institutions. Further, morality would be improv- 
ed ; for men being happy, would cease to be 
vicious ; and, lastly, There would be improvement 
in the organic, moral, and intellectual capabilities 
of the race ; for the active, moral and intellectual 
organs in the parents would increase the volume 



INFRINGEMENT OP MORAL LAW. 225 

of these in their offspring ; so that each generation 
would start not only with greater stores of acquired 
knowledge than their predecessors possessed, but 
with higher natural capabilities of turning these to 
account. 

Before merchants and manufacturers can be ex- 
pected to act in this manner, a great change must 
be effected in their sentiments and perceptions ; 
but so was a striking revolution effected in their 
ideas and practices of the tenantry west of Edin- 
burgh, when they removed the stagnant pools be- 
tween each ridge of land, and banished ague from 
their district. If any reader will compare the 
state of Scotland during the thirteenth, fourteenth, 
and fifteenth centuries, correctly and spiritedly 
represented in Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a 
Grandfather, with its present condition, in regard 
to knowledge, morality, religion, and the compar- 
ative ascendency of the rational over the animal 
part of our nature, he will, perceive so great an im- 
provement in later times, that the commencement 
of the millennium itself, in five or six hundred years 
hence, would scarce be a greater advance beyond 
the present, than the present is over the past. 
If the laws of the Creator be really what are 
here represented, and if they were once taught as 
elementary truths to every class of the community, 
and the sentiment of Veneration called in to en- 
force obedience to them, a set of new motives and 
principles would be brought into play, calculated to 
accelerate the change ; especially if it were seen, 



226 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

what, in the next place, I proceed to show, that 
the consequences of neglecting these laws are the 
most serious visitations of suffering that can well 
be imagined. The laboring population of Britain 
is taxed with exertion for ten, twelve, and some 
even fourteen hours a day, exhausting their mus- 
cular and nervous energy, so as utterly to inca- 
pacitate them, and leaving, besides, no leisure, 
for moral and intellectual pursuits. The conse- 
quence of this is, that all markets are overstocked 
with produce ; prices first fall ruinously low ; the 
operatives are then thrown idle, and left in destitu- 
tion of the necessaries of life, until the surplus pro- 
duce of their formerly excessive labors, and perhaps 
something more, are consumed ; after this takes 
place, prices rise too high in consequence of the 
supply falling rather below the demand ; the labor- 
ers resume their toil, on their former system of ex- 
cessive exertion ; they again overstock the mar- 
ket, and again are thrown idle, and suffer dreadful 
misery. 

In 1825-6-7 we witnessed this operation of the 
natural laws : large bodies of starving and unem- 
ployed laborers were then supported on charity. 
How many hours did they not stand idle, and how 
much of excessive toil would not these hours have 
relieved, if distributed over the periods when they 
were overworked 1 The results of that excessive 
exertion were seen in the form of untenanted 
houses, of shapeless piles of goods decaying in 
warehouses, in short, in every form in which mis- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 227 

applied industry could go to ruin. These obser- 
vations are strikingly illustrated by the following 
official report, copied from the public newspa- 
pers : 

* State of the Unemployed Operatives, resident in Edin- 
burgh, who are supplied with work by a Committee, con- 
stituted for that purpose, according to a list made up on 
Wednesday, the 14th March, 1827. 
'The number of unemployed operatives who have been re- 
mitted by the Committee for work, up to the 14th of 

March, are 1481 

' And the number of cases they have rejected, after 
having been particularly investigated, for being bad 
characters, giving in false statements, or being only 
a short time out of work, &c. &c. are ... 446 

Making together - 1927 

'Besides those, several hundreds have been rejected by 

the Committee, as, from (he applicants' own statement, 

they were not considered as cases entitled to receive relief, 

and were not, therefore, remitted for investigation. 

' The wages allowed is 5s. per week, with a peck of meal 
to those who have families. Some youths are only allow- 
ed 3s. of wages. 

' The particular occupations of those sent to work are as 
follows : — 242 masons, 634 laborers, 66 joiners, 19 plaster- 
ers, 76 sawyers, 19 slaters, 45 smiths, 40 painters, 36 tai- 
lors, 55 shoemakers, 20 gardeners, 229 various trades. To- 
tal 1481.' 

Edinburgh is not a manufacturing city, and if 
so much misery existed in it in proportion to its 
population, what must have been the condition of 
Glasgow, Manchester, and other manufacturing 
towns ? * 

* In the Appendix, No. IV. several interesting docu- 
ments are given, in further elucidation of these principles. 



228 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

Here, then, the Creator's laws show themselves 
paramount, even when men set themselves system- 
atically to infringe them. He intended the hu- 
man race, under the moral law, not to pursue Ac- 
quisitiveness excessively, but to labor only a cer- 
tain and a moderate portion of their lives ; and 
although they do their utmost to defeat this inten- 
tion, they cannot succeed ; they are constrained 
to remain idle as many days and hours, while their 
surplus produce is consuming, as would have served 
for the due exercise of their moral and intellectual 
faculties and the preservation of their health, if, 
they had dedicated them regularly to these ends 
from day to day, as time passed over their heads. 
But their punishment proceeds : the extreme ex- 
haustion of nervous and muscular energy, with the 
absence of all moral and intellectual excitement, 
create the excessive craving for the stimulus of 
ardent spirits which distinguishes the laboring pop- 
ulation of the present age ; this calls into pre- 
dominant activity the organs of the Animal Pro- 
pensities, these descend to the children by the law 
already explained ; increased crime, and a deteri- 
orating population, are the results ; and a moral 
and intellectual incapacity for arresting the evils, 
becomes greater with the lapse of every genera- 
tion. 

According to the principles of the present Essay, 
what are called by commercial men ' times of 
prosperity,' are seasons of the greatest infringement 
of the natural laws, and precursors of great calam- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 229 

ities. Times are not reckoned prosperous, unless 
all the industrious population is employed during 
the whole day, hours of eating and sleeping only 
excepted, in the production of tvealth. This is a 
dedication of their whole lives to the service of 
the propensities, and must necessarily terminate in 
punishment, if the world is constituted on the 
principle of supremacy of the higher powers. 

This truth has already -been illustrated more 
than once in the history of commerce. The fol- 
lowing is a recent example. 

By the combination laws, workmen were pun- 
ishable for uniting to obtain a rise of wages, when 
an extraordinary demand occurred for their labor. 
These laws being obviously unjust, were at length 
repealed. In summer and autumn 1825, however, 
commercial men conceived themselves to have 
reached the highest point of prosperity, and the 
demand for labor was unlimited. The operatives 
availed themselves pf the opportunity to better 
their conditon, formed extensive combinations; 
and, because their demands were not complied 
with, struck work, and continued idle for months 
in succession. The master manufacturers clam- 
ored against the new law, and complained that 
the country would be ruined, if combinations 
were not again declared illegal, and suppressed by 
force. According to the principles of this Essay, 
the just law must from the first have been the most 
beneficial for all parties affected by it ; and the 
result amply confirmed this idea. Subsequent 



230 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

events proved that the extraordinary demand for 
laborers in 1825 was entirely factitious, fostered 
by an overwhelming issue of bank paper, much of 
which ultimately turned out to be worthless ; in 
short, that, during the combinations, the master 
manufacturers were engaged in an extensive sys- 
tem of speculative over-production, and that the 
combinations of the workmen presented a natural 
check to this erroneous proceeding. The ruin that 
overtook the masters in 1826 arose from their 
haying accumulated, under the influence of un- 
bridled Acquisitiveness, vast stores of commodities 
which were not required by society ; and to have 
compelled the laborers, by force, to manufacture 
more at their bidding, would obviously have been 
to aggravate the evil. It is a well known fact, 
accordingly, that those masters whose operatives 
most resolutely refused to work, and who, on this 
account, clamored loudest against the law, were 
the greatest gainers in the end. Their stocks of 
goods were sold off at high prices during the spec- 
ulative period ; and when the revulsion came, in- 
stead of being ruined by the fall of property, they 
were prepared, with their capitals at command, to 
avail themselves of the depreciation, to make new 
and highly profitable investments. Here again, 
therefore, we perceive the law of justice vindicating 
itself, and benefiting by its operation even those 
individuals who blindly denounced it as injurious 
to their interests. A practical faith in the doc- 
trine that the world is arranged by the Creator, 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW . 231 

in harmony with the moral sentiments and intellect, 
would be of unspeakable advantage both to rulers 
and subjects ; for they would then be able to pur- 
sue with greater confidence the course dictated by 
moral rectitude, convinced that the result would 
prove beneficial, even although, when they took 
the first step, they could not distinctly perceive by 
what means. 

In the whole system of education and treat- 
ment of the laboring population, the laws of the 
Creator, such as I have now endeavored to expound 
them, are neglected, and their moral and intellec- 
tual cultivation is scarcely known. The Schools 
of Art, and { the Library of Useful Knowledge,' 
are laudable attempts at a better order of things; 
and I hail with joy their increase ; but they too 
much exclude the science of human nature, and, 
in consequence, will remain comparatively barren. 
From indications which already appear, however, 
I think it probable that the laboring classes will 
ere long recognise Phrenology, and the natural 
laws, as deeply interesting to themselves; and 
whenever their minds shall be opened to rational 
views of their own constitution as men, and their 
condition as members of society, I venture to predict 
that they will devote themselves to improvement with 
a zeal and earnestness that in a few generations 
will change the aspect of their class. 

The consequences of the present system of de- 
parting from the moral law, on the middle orders 
of the community, are in accordance with its 



CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 



effects on the lower. Uncertain gains, continual 
fluctuations in fortune, absence of all reliance on 
moral and intellectual principles in their pursuits, 
a gambling spirit, an insatiable appetite for wealth, 
alternately extravagant joys of excessive prosperity 
and bitter miseries of disappointed ambition, ren- 
der the whole lives of merchants vanity and vexa- 
tion of spirit. Nothing is more essential to hu- 
man happiness than fixed principles of action, on 
which we can rely for our present safety and future 
welfare ; and the Creator's laws, when seen and 
followed, afford this support and delight to our 
faculties in the highest degree. It is one, not of 
the least, of the punishments that overtake the 
middling classes for neglect of these laws, that 
they do not, as a permanent condition of mind, 
feel secure and internally at peace with them- 
selves. When the excitement of business has 
subsided, vacuity and craving are felt within. 
These proceed from the moral and intellectual fa- 
culties -calling aloud for exercise; but, through 
ignorance of their own nature, fashionable amuse- 
ments, or intoxicating liquors, are resorted to, and, 
with these, a vain attempt is made to fill up the 
void of life. I know that this class ardently de- 
sires a change that would remove the miseries 
described, and will zealously cooperate in the dif- 
fusing of knowledge, by which means alone it can 
be introduced. 

The responsibility which overtakes the higher 
classes is equally obvious. If they do not engage 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 233 

in some active pursuit, so as to give scope to their 
energies,, they suffer the evils of ennui, morbid 
irritability, and excessive relaxation of the func- 
tions of mind and body, which carry in their train 
more suffering than is entailed even on the opera- 
tives by excessive labor. If they pursue ambition 
in the senate or the field, or in literature or philos- 
ophy, their real success is in exact proportion to 
the approach which they make to observance of 
the supremacy of the sentiments and intellect. 
Franklin, Washington, and Bolivar, may be con- 
trasted with Sheridan and Bonaparte, as illustra- 
tions. Sheridan and Napoleon did not, systemati- 
cally, pursue objects sanctioned by the higher 
sentiments and intellect, as the end of their exer- 
tions ; and no person, who is a judge of human 
emotions, can read their lives, and consider what 
must have passed within their minds, without 
coming to the conclusion, that, even in their most 
brilliant moments of external prosperity, the canker 
was gnawing within, and that there was no moral 
relish of the present, or reliance on the future ; 
but a mingled tumult of inferior propensities and 
intellect, carrying with it an habitual feeling of 
unsatisfied desires. 

Let us now consider the effect of the moral law 
on national prosperity. 

If the Creator has constituted the world in har- 
mony with the dictates of the higher sentiments, 
the highest prosperity of each particular nation 



234 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

should be thoroughly compatible with that of every 
other ; that is to say, England, by sedulously 
cultivating her own soil, pursuing her own cour- 
ses of industry, founding her internal institutions 
and her external relations on the principles of 
Benevolence, Veneration, and Justice, which im- 
ply abstinence from wars of aggression, from con- 
quest, and from all selfish designs of commercial 
monopoly, would be in the highest condition of 
prosperity and enjoyment that nature would admit 
of; and every step that she deviated from these 
principles, would carry an inevitable punishment 
along with it. The same statement might be 
made relative to France and every other nation. 
According to this principle, also, the Creator 
should have conferred on each nation some pecu- 
liar advantages of soil, climate, situation, or ge- 
nius, which would enable it to carry on amicable 
intercourse with its fellow states, in a beneficial 
exchange of the products peculiar to each; so 
that the higher one rose in morality, intelligence, 
and riches, it ought to become so much the more 
estimable and valuable as a neighbor to all the 
surrounding states. This is so obviously the real 
constitution of nature, that proof of it is super- 
fluous. 

England, however, as a nation, has set this law 
at absolute defiance. She has led the way in tak- 
ing the propensities as her guides, in founding her 
laws and institutions on them, and in following 
them out in her practical conduct. England in- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 235 

vented restrictions on trade, and carried them to 
the greatest height ; she conquered colonies, and 
ruled them in the full spirit of selfishness ; she 
encouraged lotteries and fostered the slave trade, 
carried paper money and the most avaricious spi- 
rit of manufacturing and speculating in commerce 
to their highest pitch ; defended corruption in 
Parliament, distributed churches and seats on the 
bench of justice, on principles purely selfish ; all 
in direct opposition to the supremacy of the moral 
law. If the world had been created in harmony 
with predominance of the animal faculties, Eng- 
land should have been a most felicitous nation ; 
but as the reverse is the case, we should expect a 
severe national responsibility to flow from these 
departures from the divine institutions ; and griev- 
ous accordingly has been, and, I fear, will be, the 
punishment. 

The principle which regulates national respon- 
sibility is, that the precise combination of faculties 
which leads to the national transgression, carries 
in its train the punishment. Nations are under 
the moral and intellectual law, as well as individ- 
uals. A carter who half starves his horse, and 
unmercifully beats it, to supply, by the stimulus 
of pain, the vigor that nature intended to flow 
from abundance of food, may be supposed to prac- 
tise this barbarity with impunity in this world, if 
he evade the eye of Mr Martin, and that of the 
police ; but this is not the case. The hand of 
Providence reaches him by a direct punishment: 



236 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

He fails in his object, for blows cannot supply the 
vigor which, by the constitution of the horse, 
flows only from sufficiency of wholesome food. In 
his conduct, he manifests an excessive Combative- 
ness and Destructiveness, with deficient Benevo- 
lence, Veneration, Justice, and Intellect, and he 
cannot reverse this character, by merely averting 
his eyes and his hand from the horse. He carries 
these dispositions into the bosom of his family, 
and into the company of his associates, and a va- 
riety of evil consequences ensue. The delights 
that spring from active moral sentiments and in- 
tellectual powers, are necessarily unknown to him ; 
and the difference between these pleasures, and 
the sensations attendant on his moral and intel- 
lectual condition, are as great as between the 
external splendor of a king and the naked pov- 
erty of a beggar. It is true that he has never felt 
the enjoyment, and does not know the extent of 
his loss ; but still the difference exists ; zve see it, 
and know that, as a direct consequence of this 
state of mind, he is excluded from a very great 
and exalted pleasure. Further ; his active animal 
faculties rouse the Combativeness, Destructive- 
ness, Self-esteem, Secretiveness, and Cautious- 
ness, of his wife, children, and associates, against 
him, and they inflict on him animal punishment. 
He, no doubt, goes on to eat, drink, blaspheme, 
and abuse his horse, day after day, apparently as 
if Providence approved of his conduct; but he 
neither feels, nor can any one who attends to his 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 237 

condition believe him to feel, happy ; he is unea- 
sy, discontented, and disliked, — all which sensa- 
tions are his punishment, and it is fairly owing to 
his own grossness and ignorance that he does not 
connect it with his offence. Let us apply these 
remarks to nations. England, for instance, under 
the impulses of an excessively strong Acquisitive- 
ness, Self-esteem, and Destructiveness, for a long 
time protected the slave trade. Now, according 
to the law which I am explaining, during the pe- 
riods of greatest sin in this respect, the same 
combination of faculties ought to be found work- 
ing most vigorously in her other institutions, and 
producing punishment for that offence. There 
ought to be found in these periods a general spirit 
of domineering and rapacity in her public men, 
rendering them little mindful of the welfare of the 
people; injustice and harshness in her taxations 
and public laws ; and a spirit of aggression and 
hostility towards other nations, provoking retalia- 
tion of her insults. And, accordingly, I have 
been informed as a matter of fact, that, while 
these measures of injustice were publicly patron- 
ised by the government, its servants vied with each 
other in injustice towards it, and that its subjects 
dedicated their talents and enterprise towards cor- 
rupting its officers, and cheating it of its due. 
Every trader who was liable to excise or custom 
duties, evaded the one-half of them, and felt no 
disgrace in doing so. A gentleman, who was 
15 



£38 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

subject to the excise laws fifty years ago, describ- 
ed to me the condition of his trade at that time. 
The excise officers, he said, regarded it as an un- 
derstood matter, that at least one-half of the 
goods manufactured were to be smuggled without 
being charged with duty ; but then, said he, f they 
made us pay a moral and pecuniary penalty that was 
at once galling and debasing. We were required 
to ask them to our table at all meals, and place 
them at the head of it in our holiday parties ; 
when they fell into debt, we were obliged to help 
them out of it ; when they moved from one house 
to another, our servants and carts were in requisi- 
tion to perform this office ; and, by way of keep- 
ing up discipline upon us, and also to make a 
show of duty, they chose every now and tnen to 
step in and detect us in a fraud, and get us fined ; 
if we submitted quietly, they told us that they 
would make us amends, by winking at another 
fraud ; and generally did so ; but if our indigna- 
tion rendered passive obedience impossible, and 
we spoke our mind of their character and con- 
duct, they enforced the law on us, while they re" 
laxed it on our neighbors ; and these being ri- 
vals in trade, undersold us in the market, carried 
away our customers, and ruined our business. Nor 
did the bondage end here. We could not smug- 
gle without the aid of our servants ; and as they 
could, on occasion of any offence given to them- 
selves, carry information to the head quarters o* 
excise, we were slaves to them also, and were 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 239 

obliged tamely to submit to a degree of drunken- 
ness and insolence, that appears to me now per- 
fectly intolerable. Further ; this evasion and op- 
pression did us no good ; for all the trade were 
alike, and we just sold our goods so much cheap- 
er the more duty we evaded; so that our individ- 
ual success did not depend upon superior skill and 
superior morality, in making an excellent article 
at a moderate price, but upon superior capacity 
for fraud, meanness, sycophancy, and every possi- 
ble baseness. Our lives were anything but envi- 
able. Conscience, although greatly blunted by 
practices that were universal, and viewed as ine- 
vitable, still whispered that they were wrong; our 
sentiments of self-respect very frequently revolted 
at the insults to which we were exposed, and 
there was a constant feeling of insecurity from the 
great extent to which we were dependent upon 
wretches whom we internally despised. When 
the government took a higher tone, and more 
principle and greater strictness in the collection 
of the duties were enforced, we thought ourselves 
ruined ; but the reverse has been the case. The 
duties, no doubt, are now excessively burdensome 
from their amount; but that is their least evil. 
If it was possible to collect them from every tra- 
der with perfect equality, our independence would 
be complete, and our competition would be confin- 
ed to superiority in morality and skill. Matters 
are much nearer this point now than they were 
fifty years ago; but still they would admit of con- 
siderable improvement/ The same individual 



240 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

mentioned, that, in his youth, now seventy years 
ago, the civil liberty of the people of Scotland 
was held by a weak tenure. He knew instances 
of soldiers being sent, in times of war, to the 
farm-houses, to carry off, by force, young men for 
the army ; and as this was against the law, they 
were accused of some imaginary offence, such as 
a trespass, or an assault, which was proved by 
false witnesses, and the magistrate, perfectly aware 
of the farce, and its object, threatened the victim 
with transportation to the colonies, as a felon, if he 
would not enlist ; which he, of course, unprotect- 
ed and overwhelmed by power and injustice, was 
compelled to consent to. 

If the same minute representation were given of 
other departments of private life, during the time 
of the greatest immoralities on the part of the go- 
vernment, we would find that this paltering with 
conscience and character in the national proceed- 
ings, tended to keep down the morality of the peo- 
ple, and fostered in them a rapacious and gambling 
spirit, to which many of the evils that have since 
overtaking us have owed their origin. 

But we may take a more extensive view of the 
subject of national responsibility. 

In the American war England desired to gratify 
her Acquisitiveness and Self-esteem, in opposition 
to Benevolence and Justice, at the expense of the 
transatlantic colonies. This roused the animal 
resentment of the latter, and the lower faculties of 
the two nations came into collision ; that is to say, 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 241 

they made war on each other ; England to support 
a dominion in direct hostility to the principles 
which regulate the moral government of the world, 
in the expectation of becoming rich and powerful 
by success in that enterprise ; the Americans, to 
assert the supremacy of the higher sentiments, and 
to become free and independent. According to 
the principles which 1 am now unfolding, the great- 
est misfortune that could have befallen England 
would have been success, and the greatest advan- 
tage failure in her attempt; and the result is now 
acknowledged to be in exact accordance with 
these views. If England had subdued the colonies 
in the American war, every one must see to what 
an extent her Self-esteem, Acquisitiveness and 
Destructiveness would have been let loose upon 
them ; this, in the first place, would have roused 
their animal faculties, and led them to give her all 
the annoyance in their power, and the fleets and 
armies requisite to repress this spirit would have far 
counterbalanced, in expense, all the profits she 
could have wrung out of the colonists, by extortion 
and oppression. In the second place, the very 
exercise of these animal faculties by herself, in op- 
position to the moral sentiments, would have ren- 
dered her government at home an exact parallel of 
that of the carter in his own family. The same 
malevolent principles would have overflowed on her 
own subjects, the government would have felt 
uneasy, the people rebellious, discontented, and 
unhappy, and the moral law would have been amply 



242 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

vindicated by the suffering which would have 
everywhere abounded. The consequences of her 
failure have been exactly the reverse. America 
has sprung up into a great and moral nation, and 
actually contributes ten times more to the wealth of 
Britain, standing as she now does, in her natural 
relation to this country, than she ever could have 
done, as a discontented and oppressed colony. 
This advantage is reaped without any loss, anxiety, 
or expense ; it flows from the divine institutions, 
and both nations profit by and rejoice under it. 
The moral and intellectual rivalry of America, in- 
stead of prolonging the predominance of the pro- 
pensities in Britain, tends strongly to excite the 
moral sentiments in her people and government; 
and every day that we live, we are reaping the 
benefits of this improvement in wiser institutions, 
deliverance from endless abuses, and a higher and 
purer spirit prevading every department of the 
executive administration of the country. Britain, 
however, did not escape the penalty of her attempt 
at the infringement of the moral laws. The pages 
of her history, during the American war, are dark 
with suffering and gloom, and at this day we groan 
under the debt and difficulties then partly incur- 
red. 

If the world be constituted on the principles of 
the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intel- 
lect, the method of one nation seeking riches and 
power, by conquering, devastating, or obstructing 
the prosperity of other states, must be cssen- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 243 

tially futile. Being in opposition to the moral con- 
stitution of creation, it must occasion misery while 
in progress, and can lead to no result except the 
impoverishment and mortification of the people 
who pursue it. The national debt of Britain has 
been contracted chiefly in wars, originating in com- 
mercial jealousy and thirst of conquest ; in short, 
under the suggestions of Combativeness, Destruc- 
tiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self-esteem. Did 
not our ancestors, therefore, impede their own pros- 
perity and happiness, by engaging in these con- 
tests? and have any consequences of them reached 
us, except the burden of paying nearly thirty mil- 
lions of taxes annually, as the price of the gratifica- 
tion of their propensities 1 Would a statesman, 
who believed in the doctrine of this Essay, have 
recommended these wars as essential to national 
prosperity 1 If the twentieth part of the sums had 
been spent in objects recognised by the moral sen- 
timents, for example, in instituting seminaries of 
education, penitentiaries, making roads, canals, 
public granaries, &c. &.c. how different would 
have been the present condition of the country ! 

After the American, followed the French Revo- 
lutionary war. Opinions are at present more di- 
vided upon this subject ; but my view of it, offered 
with the greatest deference, is the following. 
When the French Revolution broke out, the do- 
mestic institutions of England were, to a consid- 
erable extent, founded and administered on princi- 
ples in opposition to the supremacy of the senti- 



244 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ments. A clamor was raised by the nation for 
reform of abuses. If my leading principle is sound, 
every departure from the moral law in nations, as 
well as in individuals, carries its punishment with 
it from the first hour of its commencement, till its 
final cessation ; and if Britain's institutions were 
then, to any extent, corrupt and defective, she 
could not too speedily have abandoned them, and 
adopted purer and loftier arrangements. Her 
government, however, clung to the suggestions of 
the propensities, and resisted every innovation. 
To divert the national mind from causing a revo- 
lution at home, they embarked in a war abroad; 
and, for a period of twentythree yearsj let loose the 
propensities on France with headlong fury, and a 
fearful perseverance. France, no doubt, threat- 
ened the different nations of Europe with the 
most violent interference with their governments ; a 
menace wholly unjustifiable, and that called for 
resistance. But the rulers of that country were 
preparing their own destruction, in exact propor- 
tion to their departures from the moral law ; and 
a statesman, who knew and had confidence in the 
constitution of the world, as now explained, could 
have listened to the storm in complete composure, 
prepared to repel actual aggression, and left the ex- 
ploding of French infatuation to the Ruler of the 
Universe, in unhesitating reliance on the efficacy 
of his laws. But England preferred a war of aggres- 
sion. If this conduct was in accordance with the 
sentiments, we should now, like America, be reap- 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 245 

ing the reward of our obedience to the moral 
law, and plenty and rejoicing should flow down our 
streets like a stream. But mark the contrast. This 
island exhibits the spectacle of millions of men, 
toiled to the extremity of human endurance, for a 
pittance scarcely sufficient to sustain life; weavers 
laboring for fourteen or sixteen hours a day for 
eightpence, and frequently unable to procure work, 
even on these terms ; other artisans exhausted al- 
most to death by laborious drudgery, who, if better 
recompensed, seek compensation and enjoyment 
in the grossest sensual debauchery, drunkenness, 
and gluttony ; master-traders and manufacturers 
anxiously laboring for wealth, now gay in the fond 
hope that all their expectations will be realized, 
then sunk in deep despair by the breath of ruin 
having passed over them ; land-holders and tenants 
now reaping unmeasured returns from their pro- 
perties, then pining in penury, amidst an overflow 
of every species of produce ; the government 
cramped by an overwhelming debt and the preva- 
lence of ignorance and selfishness on every side, 
so that it is impossible for it to follow with a bold 
step the most obvious dictates of reason and justice, 
owing to the countless prejudices and imaginary 
interests which every where obstruct the path of 
improvement. This resembles much more punish- 
ment for transgression, than reward for obedience 
to the divine institutions. 

If every man in Britain will turn his attention 
inwards, and reckon the pangs of disappointment 



246 CALAM[T1ES ARISING FROM 

which he has felt at the subversion of his own 
most darling schemes, by unexpected turns of 
public events, or the deep inroads on his happi- 
ness which such calamities, overtaking his dear- 
est relations and friends, have occasioned to him ; 
the numberless little enjoyments in domestc life, 
which he is forced to deny himself, by the taxa- 
tion with which they are loaded ; the obstructions 
to the fair exercise of his industry and talents pre- 
sented by stamps, licences, excise laws, custom- 
house duties et hoc genus omne ; he will discover 
the extent of responsibility attached by the Crea- 
tor to national transgressions. From my own ob- 
servation, I would say, that the miseries inflicted 
upon individuals and families, by fiscal prosecu- 
tions, founded on excise laws, stamp laws, post- 
office laws, &/C. all originating in the necessity of 
providing for the national debt, are equal to those 
arising from some of the most extensive natural 
calamities. It is true, that few persons are pros- 
ecuted without having offended ; but the evil con- 
sists in presenting men with enormous temptations 
to infringe mere financial regulations not always 
in accordance with natural morality, and then in- 
flicting ruinous penalties for transgression. Men 
have hitherto expected the punishment of their 
offences in the thunderbolt, or the yawning earth- 
quake ; and believed, that because the sea did 
not swallow them up, or the mountain fall upon 
them and crush them to atoms, Heaven was taking 
no cognizance of their sins ; while, in point of 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 247 

fact, an omnipotent, an all-just, and an all-wise 
God, had arranged before they erred, an ample 
retribution in the very consequences of their 
transgressions. It is by looking to the principles 
in the mind, from which transgressions flow, and 
attending to their whole operations and results, 
that we discover the real theory of the divine 
government. When men shall be instructed in 
the laws of creation, they will discriminate more 
accurately than heretofore between natural and 
factitious evils, and become less tolerant of the 
latter. 

The Spaniards, under the influence of Acqui- 
sitiveness, Self-esteem, Love of Approbation, and 
a blind Veneration, conquered South America, in- 
flicted upon its wretched inhabitants the most 
atrocious cruelties, and continued to weigh, for 
three hundred years, like a moral incubus, upon 
that quarter of the globe. The responsibility now 
shows itself. By the laws of the Creator, nations 
require to obey the moral law to be happy ; that 
is, to cultivate the arts of peace, to be industri- 
ous, upright, intelligent, pious and humane. The 
reward of such conduct is individual happiness, 
and national greatness and glory. There shall 
then be none to make them afraid. The Span- 
iards disobeyed all these laws in the conquest of 
America, they looked to rapine and foreign gold, 
and not to industry, for wealth ; this fostered ava- 
rice and pride in the government, baseness in the 
nobles, indolence, ignorance, and mental depravi- 



248 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ty in the people ; led them to imagine happiness 
to consist, not in the exercise of the moral and 
intellectual powers, but in the gratification of all 
the inferior feelings to the outrage of the higher. 
Intellectual cultivation was utterly neglected, the 
sentiments ran astray into the regions of bigotry 
and superstition, and the propensities acquired a 
fearful ascendancy. These causes made them the 
prey of internal discord and foreign invaders ; and 
Spain, at this moment, suffers an awful respon- 
sibility.* 

* Cowper recognises these principles of divine govern- 
ment as to nations, and has embodied them in the following 
powerful verses. 

The hand that slew till it could slay no more, 
Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore. 
Their prince, as justly seated on his throne 
As vain imperial Philip on his own, 
Tricked out of all his royalty by art, 
That stript him bare, and broke his honest heart, 
Died by the sentence of a shaven priest, 
For scorning what they taught him to detest. 
How dark the veil, that intercepts the blaze 
Of Heaven's mysterious purposes and ways ; 
God stood not, though he seemed to stand aloof j 
And at this hour the conqueror feels the proof; 
The wreath he won drew down an instant curse, 
The fretting plague is in the public purse, 
The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state, 
Starved by that indolence their minds create. 

Oh ! could their ancient Incas rise again, 

How would they take up Israel's taunting strain ! 

Art thou too fallen, Iberia ? Do we see 



INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAW. 249 

In surveying the present aspect of Europe, we 
perceive astonishing improvements achieved in 
physical science. How much is implied in the 
mere names of the steam-engine, power-looms, 
rail-roads, steam-boats, canals, and gas-lights ; 
and yet of how much misery are several of these 
inventions at present the direct sources, in conse- 
quence of being almost exclusively dedicated to 
the gratification of the propensities. The lead- 
ing purpose to which the steam-engine in almost 
all its forms of application is devoted, is the ac- 
cumulation of wealth, or the gratification of Ac- 
quisitiveness and Self-esteem ; and few have pro- 
posed, by its means, to lessen the hours of toil to 
the lower orders of society, so as to afford them 
opportunity and leisure for the cultivation of their 
moral and intellectual faculties, and thereby to 

The robber and the murderer weak as we ? 
Thou that hast wasted Earth, and dared despise 
Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, 
Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid 
Low in the pits thine avarice has made. 
We come with joy from our eternal rest, 
To see th' oppressor in his turn oppressed. 
Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand 

Rolled over all our desolated land, 
Shook principalities and kingdoms down, 
And made the mountains tremble at his frown? 
The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers, 
And waste them, as the sword has wasted ours. 
'T is thus Omnipotence his law fulfils, 

And Vengeance executes what Justice wills. 

Cotvper's Poems. — Charity, p. 156. 



250 MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 

enable them to render a more perfect obedience 
to the Creator's institutions. Physical has far 
outstripped moral science; and, it appears to me, 
that, unless the lights of Phrenology open the 
eyes of mankind to the real constitution of the 
world, and at length induce them to modify their 
conduct, in harmony with the laws of the Creator, 
their future physical discoveries will tend only to 
deepen their wretchedness. Intellect, acting as 
the ministering servant of the propensities, will 
lead them only further astray, The science of 
man's whole nature, animal, moral, and intellectu- 
al, was never more required to guide him than at 
present, when he seems to wield a giant's power, 
yet in the application of it to display the ignorant 
selfishness, wilfulness, and absurdity of an over- 
grown child. History has not yielded, and can- 
not yield, half her fruits, until mankind shall be 
possessed of a true theory of their own nature. 

SECT. IV. MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 

After the intellect and moral sentiments have 
been brought to recognise the principles of the 
Divine administration, so much wisdom, benevo- 
lence, and justice, are discernible in the natural 
laws, that our whole nature is meliorated in un- 
dergoing the punishments annexed to them. Pun- 
ishment endured by one individual also serves to 
warn others against transgression. These facts 
afford another proof that a grand object of the 



MORAL ADVANT AGES OF PUNISHMENT. 251 

arrangement of creation is the improvement of 
the moral and intellectual nature of man. So 
strikingly conspicuous, indeed, is the meliorating 
influence of suffering, that many persons have 
supposed this to be the primary object for which 
it is sent ; a notion which, with great deference, 
appears to me to be unfounded in principle, and 
dangerous in practice. If evils and misfortunes 
are mere mercies of Providence, it follows that a 
headache consequent on a debauch, is not intend- 
ed to prevent a repetition of drunkenness, so much 
as to prepare the debauchee for 'the invisible 
world ; ' and that shipwreck in a crazy vessel is not 
designed to render the merchant more cautious, but 
to lead him to heaven. 

It is however undeniable, that in innumerable 
instances pain and sorrow are the direct conse- 
quences of our own misconduct ; at the same 
time it is obviously benevolent in the Deity to ren- 
der it beneficial directly as a warning against fu- 
ture transgression, and indirectly as a means of 
purifying the mind ; nevertheless, if we shall ima- 
gine that in some instances it is dispensed as a di- 
rect punishment for particular transgressions, and 
in others, only on account of sin in general, and 
with the view of meliorating the spirit of the 
sufferer, we shall ascribe inconsistency to the Cre- 
ator, and expose ourselves to the danger of attri- 
buting our own afflictions to his favor, and those 
of others, to his wrath ; thus fostering in our 
minds self-conceit and uncharitableness. Indivi- 



252 MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISH MENT. 

duals who entertain the belief that bad health, 
worldly ruin, and sinister accidents, befalling 
them, are not punishments for infringement of the 
laws of nature, but particular manifestations of 
the love of the Creator towards themselves, make 
slight inquiry into the natural causes of their mis- 
eries, and bestow few efforts to remove them. In 
consequence, the chastisements endured by them, 
neither correct their own conduct, nor deter others 
from committing similar transgressions. Some 
religious sects, who espouse these notions, literal- 
ly act upon them, and refuse to inoculate with the 
cow-pox to escape contagion, or take other means 
of avoiding natural calamities. Regarding these 
as dispensations of Providence, sent to prepare 
them for a future world, they conceive that the 
more of them the better. Further ; these ideas, 
besides being repugnant to the common sense of 
mankind, are at variance with the principle that 
the world is arranged so as to favor virtue and 
discountenance vice ; because favoring virtue 
means obviously that the favored virtuous will 
positively enjoy more happiness, and, negatively, 
suffer fewer misfortunes than the vicious. The 
view, then, now advocated, appears less exception- 
able, viz. that punishment serves a double purpose, 
directly to warn us against transgression ; and in- 
directly, when rightly apprehended, to subdue our 
lower propensities, and purify and vivify our moral 
and intellectual powers. 

Bishop Butler coincides in this interpretation of 



MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 253 

natural calamities. ' Now,' says he, ' in the pres- 
ent state, all which we enjoy, and a great 
part of what we suffer, is put in our power* 
For pleasure and pain are the consequences of our 
actions ; and we are endued by the Author of our 
nature with capacities of foreseeing these con- 
sequences.' ' I know not that we have any one 
kind or degree of enjoyment, but by the means of 
our own actions. And, by prudence and care, we 
may, for the most part, pass our days in tolerable 
ease and quiet ; or, on the contrary, we may, 
by rashness, ungoverned passion, wilfulness, or even 
by negligence, make ourselves as miserable as ever 
we please. And many do please to make them- 
selves extremely miserable ; i. e. they do what 
they knew beforehand will render them so. They 
follow those ways, the fruit of which they knew, 
by instruction, example, experience, will be dis- 
grace, and poverty, and sickness, and untimely 
death. This every one observes to be the gene- 
ral course of things ; though it is to be allowed, 
we cannot find by experience, that all our suffer- 
ings are owing to our own follies.' — Analogy, p. 
40. In accordance with this last remark, I have 
treated of hereditary diseases ; and evils result- 
ing from convulsions of physical nature may be 
added to the same class. 

It has been objected that physical punishments, 
such as the breaking of an arm by a fall, are often 

* These words are printed in Italics in the original. 
16 



254 MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 

so disproportionally severe, that the Creator must 
have had some other and more important objec t 
in view in appointing them, than to serve as mere 
motives to physical observance ; and that that 
object must be to influence the mind of the suf- 
ferer, and to draw his attention to concerns of 
higher import. 

In answer, I remark, that the human body is 
liable to destruction by severe injuries ; and that 
the degree of suffering, in general, bears a just 
proportion to the danger connected with the 
transgression. Thus, a slight surfeit is attended 
only with headach or general uneasiness, because 
it does not endanger life ; a fall on any muscular 
part of the body is followed either with no pain, 
or only a slight indisposition, for the reason that 
it is not seriously injurious to life : but when a leg 
or arm is broken, the pain is intensely severe, be- 
cause the bones of these limbs stand high in the 
scale of utility to man. The human body is so 
framed that it may fall nine times, and suffer little 
damage, but the tenth time a limb may be broken, 
which will entail a painful chastisement. By this 
arrangement the mind is kept alive to danger to 
such an extent, as to ensure general safety, while 
at the same time it is not overwhelmed with terror 
by punishments too severe and too frequently re- 
peated. In particular states of the body, a slight 
wound may be followed by inflammation and 
death ; but these are not the results simply of the 
wound, but the consequences of a previous de- 



MORAL ADVANTAGES OP PUNISHMENT. 255 

rangement of health, occasioned by departures 
from the organic laws. 

On the whole, therefore, no adequate reason 
appears for regarding the consequences of physi- 
cal accidents in any other light than as direct 
punishments for infringement of the natural laws, 
and indirectly as a means of accomplishing moral 
and religious improvement. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL 
LAWS. 

Having now unfolded several of the natural 
laws, and their effects, and having also attempted 
to show that each is inflexible and independent in 
itself, and requires absolute obedience, so that a 
man who shall neglect the physical law will suffer 
the physical punishment, although he may be very 
attentive to the moral law; that one who infringes 
the organic law will suffer organic punishment, 
although he may obey the physical law ; and that 
a person who violates the moral law will suffer 
the moral punishment, although he should observe 
the other two ; I proceed to show the mutual 
relationship between these laws, and to adduce 
some instances of their joint operation. 

The great fires in Edinburgh, in November, 
1824, when the Parliament Square and a part of 
the High Street were consumed, will serve as one 
example. That calamity may be viewed in the 
following light : — The Creator constituted the 
countries of England and Scotland, and the Eng- 
lish and Scottish nations, with such qualities and 
relationships, that the individuals of both king- 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 257 

doras would be most happy in acting towards each 
other, and pursuing their separate vocations, un- 
der the supremacy of the moral sentiments. We 
have lived to see this practised, and to reap the 
rewards of it. But the ancestors of the two na- 
tions did not believe in this constitution of the 
world, and they preferred acting on the principles 
of the propensities : that is to say, they waged 
furious wars, and committed wasting devastations, 
on each other's properties and lives. This was 
clearly a violent infringement of the moral law ; 
and it is obvious from history that the two nations 
were equally ferocious, and delighted reciprocally 
in each other's calamities. One effect of it was 
to render personal safety an object of paramount 
importance. The hill on which the Old Town of 
Edinburgh is built, was naturally surrounded by 
marshes, and presented a perpendicular front, to 
the west, capable of being crowned with a castle. 
It was appropriated with avidity, and the metrop- 
olis of Scotland founded there, obviously and un- ' 
deniably under the inspiration purely of the 
animal faculties. It was fenced round, and ram- 
parts built to exclude the fierce warriors who 
then inhabited the south of the Tweed, and also 
to protect the inhabitants from the feudal banditti 
who infested their own soil. The space within 
the walls, however, was limited and narrow ; the 
attractions to the spot were numerous, and to 
make the most of it, our ancestors erected the 
enormous masses of high, confused, and crowded 
buildings which now compose the High Street of 



258 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

this city, and the wynds, or alleys, on its two 
sides. These abodes, moreover, were construct- 
ed, to a great extent, of timber, for not only the 
joists and floors, but the partitions between the 
rooms, were of massive wood. Our ancestors did 
all this in the perfect knowledge of the physical 
law, that wood ignited by fire is not only con- 
sumed itself, but envelopes in inevitable destruc- 
tion every combustible object within its influence. 
Further ; their successors, even when the necessity 
had ceased, perseverved in the original error, and 
in the perfect knowledge that every year added to 
the age of such fabrics increased their liability to 
burn, they allowed them to be occupied not only 
as shops filled with paper, spirits, and other high- 
ly combustible materials, but introduced gaslights, 
and let off the upper floors for brothels, introducing 
thereby into the heart of this magazine of conflagra- 
tion, the most reckless and immoral of mankind. 
The consummation was the tremendous fires of 
November, 1824, the one originating in a whiskey- 
cellar, and the other in a garret brothel, which 
consumed the whole Parliament Square and a part 
of the High Street, destroying property to the 
extent of many thousands of pounds, and spreading 
misery and ruin over a considerable portion of 
the population of Edinburgh. Wonder, conster- 
nation, and awe were forcibly excited at the vast- 
ness of this calamity ; and in the sermons that were 
preached, and the dissertations that were written 
upon it, much was said of the inscrutable ways of 
Providence, that sent such visitations upon the 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 259 

people, enveloping the innocent and the guilty in 
one common sentence of destruction. 

According to the exposition of the ways of Pro- 
vidence which I have ventured to give, there was 
nothing wonderful, nothing vengeful, nothing ar- 
bitrary, in the whole occurrence. The surprising 
thing was, that it did not take place generations 
before. The necessity for these fabrics originated 
in gross violation of the moral law ; they were 
constructed in high contempt of the physical law ; 
and, latterly, the moral law was set at defiance, 
by placing in them inhabitants abandoned to the 
worst habits of recklessness and intoxication. The 
Creator had bestowed on men faculties to perceive 
all this, and to avoid it, whenever they chose to 
exert them ; and the destruction that ensued was 
the punishment of following the propensities, in 
preference to the dictates of intellect and morali- 
ty. The object of the destruction, as a natural 
event, was to lead men to avoid repetition of the 
offences : but the principles of the divine govern- 
ment are not yet comprehended ; Acquisitiveness 
whispers that more money may be made of houses 
consisting of five or six floors, under one roof, 
than of only two ; and erections, the very coun- 
terparts of the former, are now rearing their 
heads on the spot where the others stood, and, 
sooner or later, they also will be overtaken by the 
natural laws, which never slumber or sleep. 

The true method of arriving at a sound view 
of calamities of every kind, is to direct our atten- 



260 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

tion, in the first instance, to the law of nature, 
from the operation of which they have originated ; 
then to find out the uses and advantages of that 
law when observed ; and to discover whether the 
evils under consideration have arisen from violation 
of it. In the present instance, we ought never to 
lose sight of the fact, that the houses in question 
stood erect, and the furniture in safety, by the 
very same law of gravitation which made them 
topple to the foundation when it was infringed ; 
that mankind enjoy all the benefits which result 
from the combustibility of timber as fuel, by the 
very same law which renders it a devouring ele- 
ment, when unduly ignited ; that, by the same 
moral law, which, when infringed, leads to the 
necessity of ramparts, fortifications, crowded lanes, 
and extravagantly high houses, we enjoy, now 
that we observe it better, that security of property 
and life which distinguishes modern Scotland from 
ancient Caledonia. 

This instance affords a striking illustration of 
the manner in which the physical and organic 
laws are constituted in harmony with, and in 
subserviency to, the moral law. We see clearly 
that the leading cause of the construction of such 
erections as the houses of the Old Town of Edin- 
burgh (with the deprivation of free air, and lia- 
bility to combustion that attend them), arose 
from the excessive predominance of Combative- 
ness, Destructiveness, Self-esteem and Acquisi- 
tiveness, in our ancestors ; and although the 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 261 

ancient personages who erected these monuments 
of animal supremacy, had no conception that, in 
doing so, they were laying the foundations of a 
severe punishment on themselves and their pos- 
terity ; yet, when we compare the comforts and 
advantages that would have accompanied dwell- 
ings constructed under the inspiration of Benevo- 
lence, Ideality, and enlightened Intellect, with 
the contaminating, debasing, and dangerous ef- 
fects of their workmanship, we perceive most 
clearly that they actually were the instruments of 
chastising their own transgressions, and of trans- 
mitting that chastisement to their posterity, so 
long as the animal supremacy shall be prolonged. 
Another example may be given. 

Men, by uniting under one leader, may, in vir- 
tue of the social law, acquire prodigious advanta- 
ges to themselves, which singly they could not 
obtain ; and I stated, that the condition under 
which the benefits of that law were permitted, 
was, that the leader should know and obey the 
natural laws that were conducive to success ; if 
he neglected these, then the same principle which 
gave the social body the benefit of his observing 
them, involved them in the punishment of his 
infringement ; and that this was just, because, 
under the natural law, the leader must necessarily 
be chosen by the social body, and they were 
responsible for not attending to his natural quali- 
ties. Some illustrations of the consequences of 
neglect of this law may be stated, in which the 



262 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION . 

mixed operation of the physical and moral laws 
will appear. 

During the French war, a squadron of English 
men-of-war was sent to the Baltic with military 
stores, and, in returning home up Channel, they 
were beset, for two or three days, by a thick fog. 
It was about the middle of December, and no cor- 
rect information was possessed of their exact sit- 
uation. Some of the commanders proposed ly- 
ing-to all night, and proceeding only during day, 
to avoid running ashore unawares. The commo- 
dore was exceedingly attached to his wife and fa- 
mily, and stated his determination to pass Christ- 
mas with them in England, if possible, and order- 
ed the ships to sail straight on their voyage. 
The very same night they all struck on a sand- 
bank off the coast of Holland ; two ships of the 
line were dashed to pieces, and every soul on 
board perished. The third ship drew less water, 
was forced over the bank by the waves, was strand- 
ed on the beach, the crew saved, but led to a 
captivity of many years' duration. Now, these 
vessels were destroyed under the physical law . 
but this calamity owed its origin to the pre- 
dominance of the animal over the moral and intel- 
lectual faculties in the commodore. The gratifica- 
tion which he sought to obtain was individual 
and selfish ; and, if his Benevolence, Veneration, 
Conscientiousness, and Intellect, had been as 
alert and carried as forcibly home to his mind 
the operation of the physical laws, and the wel- 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 263 

fare of the men under his charge ; nay, if these 
faculties had been sufficiently alive to see the dan- 
ger to which he exposed his own life, and the hap- 
piness of his own wife and children, — he never 
could have followed the precipitate course which 
consigned himself, and so many brave men, to a 
watery grave, within a few hours after his resolu- 
tion was formed. 

Very lately the Ogle Castle East Indiaman was 
offered a pilot coming up Channel, but the cap- 
tain refused assistance, professing his own skill to 
be sufficient. In a few hours the ship ran 
aground on a sand-bank, and every human being 
perished in the waves. This also arose from the 
physical law, but the unfavorable operation of it 
sprung from Self-esteem, pretending to know- 
ledge which the intellect did not possess ; and, 
as it is only by the latter that obedience can be 
yielded to the physical laws, the destruction of 
the ship was indirectly the consequence of in- 
fringement of the moral and intellectual laws. 

An old sailor, whom I lately met on the Queens- 
ferry passage, told me, that he had been nearly 
fifty years at sea, and once was in a fifty gun ship 
in the West Indies. The captain, he said, was a 
'fine man ;' he knew the climate, and foresaw a 
hurricane coming, by its natural signs; and, on 
one occasion, in particular, he struck the top- 
masts, lowered the yards, lashed the guns, made 
each man supply himself with food for thirty-six 
hours, and scarcely was this done when the hurri- 



264 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

cane came; the ship lay for four hours on her 
beam-ends in the water ; but all was prepared ; 
the men were kept in vigor during the storm 
and fit for every exertion ; the ship at last righted? 
suffered little damage, and proceeded on her voy- 
age. The fleet which she convoyed was dispers- 
ed, and a great number of the ships foundered. 
Here we see the supremacy of the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties, and discover to what a surpris- 
ing extent they present a guarantee^ even against 
the fury of the physical elements in their highest 
state of agitation. 

One of the most instructive illustrations of the 

onnexion between the different natural laws is 

presented in Captain Lvon's brief narrative of an 

unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse Bay, in his 

Majesty's ship Griper, in the year 1824. ... 

Captain Lyon mentions, that he sailed in the 
Griper on 13th June, 1824, in company with his 
Majesty's surveying vessel Snap, as a store-tender. 
The Griper was 180 tons burden, and ' drew 16 
feet 1 inch abaft, and 15 feet 10 inches forward.' 
— p. 2. On the 26th, he, ' was sorry to observe 
that the Griper, from her great depth and sharp- 
ness forward, pitched very deeply.' — p. 3.' ' She 
sailed so ill, that ' in a stiff breeze and with stud- 
ding-sails set, he was unable to get above four knots 
an hour out of her, and she was twice whirled 
round in an eddy in the Pentland Frith, from which 
she could not escape.' — p. 6. On the 3d July, 
' being now fairly at sea, I caused the Snap to take 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 265 

us in tow, which I had declined doing as we passed 
up the east coast of England, although our little 
companion had much difficulty in keeping under 
sufficiently low sail for us, and by noon we had pas- 
sed the Stack Back.' * The Snap was of the great- 
est assistance, the Griper frequently towing at the 
rate of five knots, in cases where she would not 
have gone three.' — p. 10. 'On the forenoon of the 
16th, the Snap came and took us in tow; but at 
noon on the 17th, strong breezes and a heavy swell 
obliged us again to cast off. We scudded while 
able, but our depth on the water caused us to ship 
so many heavy seas, that I most reluctantly brought 
to under storm stay-sails. This was rendered ex- 
ceedingly mortifying, by observing that our compa- 
nion was perfectly dry, and not affected by the sea.' 
— p. 13. ' When our stores were all on board, we 
found our narrow decks completely crowded by 
them. The gangways, forecastle, and abaft the 
mizen-mast, were filled with casks, hawsers, whale- 
lines, and stream-cables, while on our straitened 
lower decks we were obliged to place casks and 
other stores, in every part but that allotted to the 
ship's company's mess-tables ; and even my cabin 
had a quantity of things stowed away in it.'— p. 21. 
< It may be proper to mention, that the Fury and 
Hecla, which were enabled to stow three years pro- 
visions, were each exactly double the size of the 
Griper, and the Griper carried two years' and a 
halfs provisions.'— pp. 22, 23. 

Arrived in the Polar Seas, they were visited by 



266 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

a storm, of which Captan Lyon gives the following 
description : — ' We soon, however, came to fifteen 
fathoms, and I kept right away, but had then only 
ten ; when, being unable to see far around us, and 
observing, from the whiteness of the water, that we 
were on a bank, I rounded to at 7 a. m., and tried 
to bring up with the starboard anchor, and seventy 
fathoms chain, but the stiff breeze and heavy sea 
caused this to part in half an hour, and we again 
made sail to the north east-ward ; but finding we 
came suddenly to seven fathoms, and that the ship 
could not possibly work out again, as she would 
not face the sea, or keep steerage-way on her, I 
most reluctantly brought her up with three bowers 
and a stream in succession, yet not before we had 
shoaled to five and a half. This was between 8 
and 9 a. m., the ship pitching bows under, and a 
tremendous sea running. At noon, the starboard- 
bower anchor parted, but the others held. 

' As there was every reason to fear the falling of 
the tide, which we knew to be from twelve to fifteen 
feet on this coast, and in that case the total destruc- 
tion of the ship, I caused the longboat to be hoist- 
ed out, and with the four smaller ones to be stored 
to a certain extent, with arms and provisions. The 
officers drew lots for their respective boats, and 
the ship's company were stationed to them. The 
longboat having been filled full of stores, which 
could not be put below, it became requisite to throw 
them overboard, as there ivas no room for them on 
our very small and crowded decks } over which heavy 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 267 

seas were constantly sweeping. In making these 
preparations for taking to the boats, it was evident 
to all, that the longboat was the only one that had 
the slightest chance of living under the lee of the 
ship, should she be wrecked, but every officer and 
man drew his lot with the greatest composure, 
though two of our boats would have swamped the 
instant they were lowered. Yet, such was the noble 
feeling of those around me, that it was evident, 
that, had I ordered the boats in question to be man- 
ned, their crews would have entered them without 
a murmur. In the afternoon, on the weather clear- 
ing a little, we discovered a low beach all around 
astern of us, on which the surf was running to an 
awful height, and it appeared evident that no hu- 
man powers could save us. At 3 p. m. the tide 
had fallen, twentytwo feet, (only six feet more than 
toe drew,) and the ship, having been lifted by a tre- 
mendous sea, struck with great violence the length of 
her keel. This we naturally conceived was the 
forerunner of her total wreck, and we stood in 
readiness to take the boats, and endeavour to hang 
under her lee. She continued to strike with 
sufficient force to have burst any less fortified ves- 
sel, at intervals of a few minutes, whenever an 
unusual heavy sea passed us. And, as the water 
was so shallow, these might almost be called break- 
ers rather than waves, for each in passing burst 
with great force over our gangways, and as every 
sea ' topped,' our decks were continually, and fre- 
quently, deeply flooded. All hands took a little 



268 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

refreshment, for some had scarcely been below for 
twentyfour hours, and I had not been in bed for 
three nights. Although few, or none of us, had 
any idea that we should survive the gale, we did 
not think that our comforts should be entirely 
neglected, and an order was therefore given to the 
men to put on their best and warmest clothing, to 
enable them to support life as long as possible. 
Every man therefore, brought his bag on deck, and 
dressed himself; and in the fine athletic forms 
which stood before me, I did not see one muscle 
quiver, nor the slightest sign of alarm. The officers 
each secured some useful instrument about them, 
for the purposes of observation, although it was 
acknowledged by all that not the slightest hope 
remained. And now that every thing in our power 
had been done, I called all hands aft, and to a 
merciful God offered prayers for our preservation. 
I thanked every one for their excellent conduct, 
and cautioned them, as we should, in all probabil- 
ity, soon appear before our Maker, to enter his 
presence as men resigned to their fate. We then 
all sat down in groups, and, sheltered from the 
wash of the sea, by whatever we could find, many 
of us endeavored to obtain a little sleep. 4 Never, 
perhaps, was witnessed a finer scene than on the 
deck of my little ship, when all the hope of life 
had left us. Noble as the character of the British 
sailor is always allowed to be in cases of danger ; 
yet I did not believe it to be possible, that, among 
fortyone persons, not one repining word should 



ON THE NATURAL LAWS. 



have been uttered. The officers sat about, 
wherever they could find a shelter from the sea, 
and the men lay down conversing with each other 
with the most perfect calmness. Each was at 
peace with his neighbor and all the world, and I 
am firmly persuaded that the resignation which was 
then shown to the will of the Almighty, was the 
means of obtaining his mercy. At about 6 p. m., 
the rudder, which had already received some very 
heavy blows, rose and broke up the after-lockers, 
and this was the last severe shock that the ship 
received. We found by the well that she made 
no water, and by dark she struck no more. God 
was merciful to us, and the tide almost miraculous- 
ly fell no lower. At dark heavy rain fell, but was 
borne in patience, for it beat down the gale, and 
brought with it a light air from the northward. At 
9 p. m., the water had deepened to five fathoms. 
The ship kept off the ground all night, and our 
exhausted crew obtained some broken rest.' — p. 76. 

In humble gratitude for his deliverance, he call- 
ed the place ' The Bay of God's mercy/ and ' of- 
fered up thanks and praises to God, for the mercy 
he had shown to us.' 

On 12th September, they had another gale of 
wind, with cutting showers of sleet, and a heavy 
sea. ' At such a time as this,' says Captain Lyon, 
1 we had fresh cause to deplore the extreme dulncss 
of the Griper's sailing ; for though almost amj 
other vessel would have worked off this lea-shore, we 
made little or no progress on a wind, but remained 
17 



270 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

actually pitching, forecastle under, with scarcely 
steerage-way , to preserve which I was ultimately 
obliged to keep her. nearly two points off the 
wind.' — p. 98. 

Another storm overtook them, which is describ- 
ed as follows : — l Never shall I forget the dreari- 
ness of this most anxious night. Our ship pitch- 
ed at such a rate that it was not possible to stand, 
even below ; while on deck we were unable to 
move, without holding by ropes, which were 
stretched from side to side. The drift snow flew 
in such sharp heavy flakes, that we could not look 
to windward, and it froze on deck to above a foot 
in depth. The sea made incessant breaches quite 
fore and aft the ship, and the temporary warmth 
it gave while it washed over us, was most painful- 
ly checked, by its almost immediately freezing on 
our clothes. To these discomforts were added, 
the horrible uncertainty as to whether the cables 
would hold until daylight, and the conviction also, 
that if they failed us, we should instantly be dash- 
ed to pieces ; the wind blowing directly to the 
quarter in which we knew the shore must lie. 
Again, should they continue to hold us, we feared, 
by the ship's complaining so much forward, that 
the bitts would be torn up, or that she would set- 
tle down at her anchors, overpowered by some of 
the tremendous seas which burst over her. At 
dawn on the 13th, thirty minutes after four a. m., 
we found that the best bower cable had parted : 
and, as the gale now blew with terrific violence 



OP THE NATURAL LAWS. 271 

from the north, there was little reason to expect 
that the other anchors would hold long ; or, if they 
did, we pitched so deeply, and lifted so great a 
body of water each tune, that it was feared the 
windlass and forecastle would be torn up, or she 
must go down at her anchors ; although the ports 
were knocked out, and a considerable portion of 
the bulwark cut away, she could scarcely discharge 
one sea before shipping another, and the decks 
were frequently flooded to an alarming depth. 

* At six a. m., all further doubts on this particu- 
lar account were at an end ; for, having received 
two overwhelming seas, both the other cables 
went at the same moment, and we were left help- 
less, without anchors, or any means of saving 
ourselves, should the shore, as we had every rea- 
son to expect, be close astern. And here, again, 
I had the happiness of witnessing the same gen- 
eral tranquillity as was shown on the 1st of Sep- 
tember. There was no outcry that the cables 
were gone ; but my friend Mr Manico, with Mr 
Carr the gunner, came aft as soon as they recov- 
ered their legs, and, in the lowest whisper, inform- 
ed me that the cables had all parted. The ship, 
in trending to the wind, lay quite down on her 
broadside, and as it then became evident that 
nothing held her, and that she was quite helpless, 
each man instinctively took his station ; while the 
seamen at the leads, having secured themselves 
as well as was in their power, repeated their sound- 
ings, on which our preservation depended, with as 



272 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

much composure as if we had been entering a 
friendly port. Here, again, that Almighty power, 
which had before so mercifully preserved us, grant- 
ed us his protection.' — p. 100. 

Nothing can be more interesting and moving 
than this narrative ; it displays .a great predomi- 
nance of the moral sentiments and intellect, but 
sadly unenlightened as to the natural laws. I 
quoted, in Captain Lyon's own words, his descrip- 
tion of the Griper, loaded to such excess that she 
drew sixteen feet water ; that she was incapable 
of sailing ; that she was whirled round in an eddy 
in the Pentland Frith ; that seas broke over her 
that did not wet the deck of the little Snap, not 
half her size. Captain Lyon knew all this; and 
also the roughness of the climate to which he was 
steering; and, with these outrages of the physical law 
staring him in the face, he proceeded on his voy- 
age, without addressing, so far as we perceive, one 
remonstrance to the Lords of the Admiralty on the 
subject of this infringement of every principle of 
common prudence. My opinion is, that Captain 
Lyon was not blind to the errors committed in his 
equipment, or to their probable consequences ; but 
that his powerful sentiment of Veneration, combin- 
ed with Cautiousness and Love of Approbation, 
(misdirected in this instance), deprived him of 
courage to complain to the Admiralty, through fear 
of giving offence : or that, if he did complain, they 
have prevented him from stating the fact in his 
narrative. To the tempestuous north be sailed ; 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 273 

and his greatest dangers were clearly referable to 
the very infringements of the physical laws which 
he describes. When the tide ebbed, his ship 
reached to within six feet of the bottom, and, in 
the hollow of every wave, struck with great violence: 
but she was loaded at least four feet too deeply, by 
his own account ; so that, if he had done his own 
duty, she would have had four feet of additional wa- 
ter, or, ten feet in all, between her and the bottom , 
even in the hollow of the wave, — a matter of the 
very last importance, in such a critical condition. 
Indeed, with four feet more water, she would not 
have struck. Besides, if less loaded, she would 
have struck less violently. Again, when pressed 
upon a lea shore, her incapability of sailing was a 
most obvious cause of danger : in short, if Provi- 
dence is to be regarded as the cause of these ca- 
lamities, there is no impropriety which man can 
commit, which may not, on the same principles, be 
charged against the Creator. 

But the moral law again shines forth in delight- 
ful splendor, in the conduct of Captain Lyon and 
his crew, when in the most forlorn condition. Pie- 
ty, resignation, and manly resolution, then anima- 
ted them to the noblest efforts. On the principle, 
that the power of accommodating the conduct to 
the natural laws, depends on the activity of the 
sentiments and intellect, and that the more numer- 
ous the faculties that are excited, the greater is 
the energy communicated to the whole system, I 
would say, that, while Captain Lyon's sufferings 



274 0N THE COMBINED OPERATION 

were, in a great degree, brought on by his in- 
fringements of the physical laws, his escape was, 
in a great measure, promoted by his obedience to 
the moral law ; and that Providence, in the whole 
occurrence, proceeded on the broad and general 
principle, which sends advantage uniformly as the 
reward of obedience, and evil as the punishment 
of infringement, of every particular law of creation. 

That storms and tempests have been instituted 
for some benevolent end, may, perhaps, be ac- 
knowledged, when their causes and effects are 
fully known, which at present is not the case. 
But, even amidst all our ignorance of these, it is 
surprising how small a portion of evil they would 
occasion, if men obeyed the laws which are actu- 
ally ascertained. How many ships perish from 
being sent to sea in an old worn out condition, 
and ill equipped, through mere Acquisitiveness ; 
and how many more, from captains and crews 
being chosen who are greatly deficient in knowl- 
edge, intelligence, and morality, in consequence 
of which they infringe the physical laws. We 
ought to look to all these matters, before complain- 
ing of storms as natural institutions. 

The last example of the mixed operation of the 
natural laws which I shall notice, is that which 
followed from the mercantile distresses of 1825-6. 
I have traced the origin of that visitation to ex- 
cessive activity of Acquisitiveness, and a general 
ascendancy of the animal and selfish faculties over 
the moral and intellectual powers. The punish- 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 275 

ments of these offences were manifold. The ex- 
cesses infringed the moral law, and the chastise- 
ment for this was deprivation of the tranquil, 
steady enjoyment that flows only from the senti- 
ments, with severe suffering in the ruin of fortune 
and blasting of hope. These disappointments 
produced mental anguish and depression ; which 
occasioned unhealthy action in the brain. The 
action of the brain being disturbed, a morbid 
nervous influence was transmitted to the whole 
corporeal system ; bodily disease was superadded 
to mental sorrow, and, in some instances, the un- 
happy sufferers committed suicide to escape from 
these aggravated evils. Under the organic law, 
the children produced in this period of mental de- 
pression, bodily distress, and organic derange- 
ment, will inherit weak bodies, with feeble and 
irritable minds, a hereditary chastisement of their 
father's transgressions. 

In the instances now given, we discover the va- 
rious laws acting in perfect harmony, and in sub- 
ordination to the moral and intellectual. If our 
ancestors had not forsaken the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments, such fabrics as the houses in the 
Old Town of Edinburgh never would have been 
built ; and if the modern proprietors had returned 
to that law, and kept profligate and drunken in- 
habitants out of them, the conflagration might 
still have been avoided. In the case of the ships, 
we saw, that wherever intellect and sentiment had 
been relaxed, and animal motives permitted to 



276 OF THE NATURAL LAWS . 

assume the supremacy, evil had speedily followed; 
and that where the higher powers were called 
forth, safety had been obtained. And, finally, in 
the case of the merchants "and manufacturers, we 
traced their calamities directly to placing Acqui- 
sitiveness and Ambition above Intellect and Sen- 
timent. 

Formidable and appalling, then, as these pun- 
ishments are, yet, when we attend to the laws 
under which they occur, and perceive that the ob- 
ject and legitimate operation of everyone of them, 
when observed, is to produce happiness to man ; 
and that the punishments have the sole object in 
view of forcing him back to this enjoyment, we 
cannot, under the supremacy of the sentiments 
and intellect, fail to bow in humility before them, 
as at once wise, just, and beneficent. 



CONCLUSION. 

The question has frequently been asked, What 
is the practical use of Phrenology, even supposing 
it to be true ? A few observations will enable us 
to answer this inquiry ; and at the same time, to 
present a brief summary of the doctrine of the 
preceding Essay. 

Prior to the age of Galileo, the earth and sun 
presented to the eye phenomena exactly similar 
to those which they now exhibit ; but their mo- 
tions appeared in a very different light to the un- 
derstanding. 

Before the age of Newton, the revolutions of 
the planets were known as matter of fact ; but the 
understanding was ignorant of the principle of 
their motions. 

Previous to the dawn of modern chemistry, 
many of the qualities of physical substances were 
ascertained by observation, but their ultimate 
principles and relations were not understood. 

Knowledge may be rendered beneficial in two 
ways, — either by rendering the substance dis- 
covered directly subservient to human enjoyment ; 
or, where this is impossible, by modifying human 
conduct in harmony with its qualities. While 
knowledge of any department of nature remains 
imperfect and empirical, the unknown qualities of 
the objects belonging to it may render our efforts 



278 CONCLUSION. 

either to apply or to accord with those which are 
known, altogether abortive. Hence it is only 
after ultimate principles have been discovered, 
their relations ascertained, and this knowledge 
has been systematised, that science can attain its 
full character of utility. The merits of Galileo 
and Newton consist in having rendered this ser- 
vice to astronomy. 

Before the appearance of Drs Gall and Spurz- 
heim, mankind were practically acquainted with 
the feelings and intellectual operations of their 
own minds ; and anatomists knew the appearances 
of the brain ; But the science of Mind was very 
much in the same state as that of the heavenly 
bodies prior to Galileo and Newton. This re- 
mark is borne out by the following considerations : 

First. No unanimity prevailed among philoso- 
phers concerning the elementary feelings and 
intellectual powers of man. Individuals, defi- 
cient in Conscientiousness, for instance, denied 
that the sentiment of justice was a primitive men- 
tal quality of mind. Others, deficient in Venera- 
tion, asserted that man was not naturally prone to 
worship, and ascribed religion to the invention of 
priests. 

Secondly. The extent to which the primitive 
faculties differ in relative strength, was matter of 
dispute, or of vague conjecture ; and there was 
no agreement whether many actual attainments 
were the gifts of nature, or the results of mere 
cultivation. 



CONCLUSION. 279 

Thirdly. Different modes of the same feeling 
were often mistaken for different feelings ; and 
modes of action of all the intellectual faculties 
were mistaken for faculties themselves. 

Fourthly. The brain, confessedly the most im- 
portant organ of the body, and that with which 
the nerves of the senses, of motion, and of feel- 
ing directly communicate, had no ascertained func- 
tions. Mankind were ignorant of its uses, and of 
its influence on the mental faculties. They indeed 
still dispute that its different part are the organs 
of different mental powers, and that the vigor of 
manifestation bears a proportion, cceteris paribus, 
to the size of the organ. 

If, in physics, imperfect and empirical knowl- 
edge renders the unknown qualities of bodies lia- 
ble to frustrate the efforts of man to apply or to 
accommodate his conduct to their known qualities ; 
and if only a complete and systematic exhibition 
of ultimate principles, and their relations, can 
confer on science its full character of utility, — 
the same doctrine applies with equal or greater 
force to the philosophy of man. For example, 

Politics embrace forms of government, and the 
relations between different states. All govern- 
ment is designed to combine the efforts of indi- 
viduals, and to regulate their conduct when unit- 
ed. To arrive at the best means of accomplish- 
ing this end, systematic knowledge of the nature 
of man seems highly important. A despotism, for 
example, may restrain some abuses of the lower 



280 CONCLUSION. 

propensities, but it asuredly impedes the exercise 
of reflection, and others of the highest and noblest 
powers. A form of government can be suited to 
the nature of man only when it is calculated to 
permit the legitimate use, and to restrain the 
abuses, of all his mental feelings and capacities ; 
and how can such a government be devised, while 
these principles, with their spheres of action, and 
external relations, are imperfectly ascertained. 
Again ; all relations between different states must 
also be in accordance with the nature of man, to 
prove permanently beneficial ; and the question 
recurs, How are these to be framed while that 
nature is matter of conjecture 1 Napoleon dis- 
believed in a sentiment of justice as an innate 
quality of mind ; arid, in his relations with other 
states, relied on fear and interest as the grand 
motives of conduct : but that sentiment existed ; 
and, combined with other faculties which he out- 
raged, prompted Europe to hurl him from his 
throne. If Napoleon had comprehended the prin- 
ciples of human nature, and their relations, as 
forcibly and clearly as the principles of mathema- 
tics, in which he excelled, his understanding would 
have greatly modified his conduct, and Europe 
would have escaped prodigious calamities. 

Legislation, civil and criminal, is intended to 
regulate and direct the human faculties in their 
efforts at gratification; and, to be useful, laws 
must accord with the constitution of these facul- 
ties. But how can salutary laws be enacted, while 



CONCLUSION. 281 

the subject to be governed, or human nature, is 
not accurately understood? The inconsistency 
and intricacy of the laws even in enlightened na- 
tions, have afforded themes for the satirist in every 
age ; and how could the case be otherwise? Le- 
gislators provided rules for directing the qualities 
of human nature, which they conceived themselves 
to know ; but either error in their conceptions, or 
the effects of other qualities unknown or unat- 
tended to, defeated their intentions. The law, 
for example, punishing heresy with burning, was 
addressed by our ancestors to Cautiousness, 
Self-love, and other inferior feelings ; but Intel- 
lect, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Firmness, 
were omitted in their estimate of human princi- 
ples of action ; and these set their law at defi- 
ance. 

There are many laws still in the statute book, 
equally at variance with the nature of man. 

Education is intended to enlighten the intel- 
lect and moral sentiments, and train them to vi- 
gor. But how can this be successfully accom 
plished, when the faculties and sentiments them- 
selves, the laws to which they are subjected, and 
their relations to external objects, are unascer- 
tained. Accordingly, the theories and practices 
observed in education are innumerable and contra- 
dictory, which could not happen if men knew 
the constitution of the object which they were 
training. 

Morals and Religion, also, cannot assume a 



282 CONCLUSION. 

systematic and demonstrable character, until the 
elementary qualities of mind, and their relations 
shall be ascertained. 

It is presumable that the Deity, in creating the 
moral powers and the external world, really adapt- 
ed the one to the other ; so that individuals and 
nations, in pursuing morality, must, in every in- 
stance, be promoting their best interests, and, in 
departing from it, must be sacrificing them to pas- 
sion or to illusory notions of advantage. But, un- 
til the nature of man, and the relationship between 
it and the external world, shall be scientifically 
ascertained, and systematically expounded, it will 
be impossible to support morality by the powerful 
demonstration of interest, as here supposed, coin- 
ciding with it. The tendency in most men to 
view expediency as not always coincident with 
justice, affords a striking proof of the limited 
knowledge of the constitution of man and the ex- 
ternal world still prevalent in society 

The diversities of doctrine in religion also obvi. 
ously owe their origin to ignorance of the primi- 
tive faculties and their relations. The faculties 
differ in relative strength in different individuals, 
and each person is most alive to objects and views 
connected with the powers predominant in him- 
self. Hence, in reading the Scriptures, one is 
convinced that they establish Calvinism ; anoth- 
er, possessing a different combination of faculties, 
discovers in them Lutheranism ; and a third is satis, 
fied that Socinianism is the only true interpretation. 



CONCLUSIO N. 



These individuals have, in general, no distinct 
conception that the views which strike them most 
forcibly, appear in a different light to minds dif- 
ferently constituted. A correct interpretation of 
revelation must harmonize with the dictates of the 
moral sentiments and intellect, holding the animal 
propensities in subordination. Jt may legitimate- 
ly go beyond what they, unaided, could reach • 
but it cannot contradict them ; because this would 
be setting the revelation of the bible in opposition 
to the inherent dictates of the faculties constitut- 
ed by the Creator, which cannot be admitted ; as 
the Deity is too powerful and wise to be incon- 
sistent. But mankind will never be induced to 
bow to such interpretations, while each takes his 
individual mind as a standard of human nature in 
general, and conceives that his own impressions 
are synonymous with absolute truth. The estab- 
lishment of the nature of man, therefore, on a sci- 
entific basis, and in a systematic form, must aid 
the cause both of morality and religion. 

The professions, pursuits, amusements, and 
hours of exertion of individuals, ought also to 
bear reference to their physical and mental con- 
stitution ; but hitherto no guiding principle has 
been possessed to regulate practice in these im- 
portant particulars, — another evidence that the 
science of man has been unknown. 

But we require only to attend to the scenes 
daily presenting themselves in society, to obtain 
irresistible demonstration of the consequences re- 



284 CONCLUSION. 

suiting from the want of a true theory of human 
nature, and its relations. Every preceptor in 
schools, every professor in colleges, every author, 
editor, and pamphleteer, every member of Par- 
liament, counsellor and judge, has a set of notions 
of his own, which in his mind hold the place of a 
system of the philosophy of man; and although 
he may not have methodized his ideas, or even ac- 
knowledged them to himself as a theory, yet they 
constitute a standard to him by which he practi- 
cally judges of all questions in morals, politics, 
and religion ; he advocates whatever views co- 
incide with them, and condemns all that differ 
from them, with as unhesitating dogmatism as the 
most pertinacious theorist on earth. Each also 
despises the notions of his fellows, in so far as 
they differ from his own. In short, the human 
faculties too generally operate simply as instincts, 
exhibiting all the confliction and uncertainty f 
mere feeling, unenlightened by perception of their 
own nature and objects. Hence public measures 
in general, whether relating to education, religion, 
trade, manufactures, the poor, criminal law, or to 
any other of the dearest interests of society, instead 
of being treated as branches of one general sys- 
tem of economy, and adjusted each on scientific 
principles in harmony with all the rest, are sup- 
ported or opposed on narrow and empirical 
grounds, and often call forth displays of ignorance, 
prejudice, selfishness, intolerance, and bigotry, 
that greatly obstruct the progress of improvement. 



CONCLUSION. 235 

Indeed, unanimity, even among sensible and vir- 
tuous men, will be impossible, so long as no stand- 
ard of mental philosophy is admitted to guide in- 
dividual feelings and perceptions. But the state 
of things now described could not exist if educa- 
tion embraced a true system of human nature and 
its relations. 

If then, phrenology be true, it will, when ma- 
tured, supply the deficiencies now pointed out. 

But, here, another question naturally presents 
itself, How are the views now expounded, suppos- 
ing them to contain some portion of truth, to be 
rendered practical? In answer I remark, that the 
institutions and manners of society indicate the 
state of mind of the influential classes at the time 
when they prevail. The trial and burning of old 
women as witches, point out clearly the predom- 
inance of Destructiveness and Wonder over Intel- 
lect and Benevolence, in those who are guilty of 
such cruel absurdities. The practices of wager of 
battle, and ordeal by fire and water, indicate Com- 
bativeness, Destructiveness, and Veneration, to 
have been in great activity in those who permitted 
them, combined with much intellectual ignorance 
of the natural constitution of the world. In like 
manner, the enormous sums willingly expended in 
war, and the small sums grudgingly paid for pub- 
lic improvements; the intense energy displayed in 
the pursuit of wealth ; and the general apathy 
evinced in the search after knowledge and virtue, 
unequivocally proclaim activity of Combativeness, 
18 



286 CONCLUSION. 

Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self-esteem, and 
Love of Approbation ; with comparatively mode- 
rate vivacity of Benevolence and Intellect, in the 
present generation. Before, therefore, the prac- 
tices of mankind can be altered, the state of their 
minds must be changed. No practical error can 
be greater than that of establishing institutions 
greatly in advance of the mental condition of the 
people. The rational method is first to instruct 
the intellect, then to interest the sentiments, and, 
last of all, to form arrangements in harmony with, 
and resting on, these as their basis. 

The views developed in the preceding chapters, 
if founded in nature, may be expected to lead, ul- 
timately, to considerable changes in many of the 
customs and pursuits of society ; but to accomplish 
this effect, the principles themselves must first be 
ascertained to be true ; then they must be sedu- 
lously taught ; and when the public mind has been 
thoroughly prepared, then only ought important 
practical alterations to be proposed. It appears 
to me that a long series of years will be necessary 
to bring even civilized nations into a condition 
systematically to obey the natural laws. 

The preceding chapters may be regarded, in 
one sense, as an introduction to an Essay on Edu- 
cation. If the views unfolded in them be in gen- 
eral sound, it will follow that education has scarce- 
ly yet commenced. If the Creator has bestowed 
on the body, on the mind, and on external nature, 
determinate constitutions, and arranged these so as 



CONCLUSION. 287 

to act on each other, and to produce happiness or 
misery to man, according to certain definite prin- 
ciples, and if this action goes on invariably, inflex- 
ibly, and irresistibly, whether men attend to it or 
not, it is obvious that the very basis of useful 
knowledge must consist in an acquaintance with 
these natural arrangements : and that education 
will be valuable in the exact degree in which it 
communicates such information, and trains the 
faculties to act upon it. Reading, writing, and 
accounts, which make up the instruction enjoyed 
by the lower orders, are merely means of acquiring 
knowledge, but do not constitute it. Greek, Latin, 
and mathematics, which are added in the educa- 
tion of the middle classes, are still only means 
of obtaining information ; so that, with the excep- 
tion of the few who pursue physical science, so- 
ciety dedicates very little attention to the study of 
the natural laws. In following out the views now 
discussed, therefore, each individual, according as 
he becomes acquainted with the natural laws, 
ought to obey ihem, and to communicate his ex- 
perience of their operations to others ; avoiding at 
the same time all attempts at subverting, by vio- 
lence, established institutions, or outraging public 
sentiment by intemperate discussions. The doc- 
trine now unfolded, if true, authorises us to pre- 
dicate that the most successful method of meliora- 
ting the condition of mankind, will be that which 
appeals most directly to their moral sentiments and 
intellect ; and, I may add from experience and ob- 



288 CONCLUSION. 

servation, that, in proportion as any individual be- 
comes acquainted with the real constitution of the 
human mind, will his conviction of the efficacy of 
this method increase. 

The next step ought to be to teach those laws 
to the young.* Their minds, not being preoccu- 
pied by prejudices, will recognise them as conge- 
nial to their constitution $ the first generation that 
has embraced them from infancy will proceed to 
modify the institutions of society into accordance 
with their dictates ; and in the course of ages they 
may at length be acknowledged as practically use- 
ful. All true theories have ultimately been adopt- 
ed and influenced practice ; and I see no reason to 
fear that the present will prove an exception. The 
failure of all previous systems is the natural con- 
sequence of their being unfounded ; if this one 
shall resemble them, it will deserve, and assuredly 
will meet with, a similar fate. A perception of the 
importance of the natural laws will lead to their 
observance, and this will be attended with an im- 
proved developement of brain, thereby increasing 
the desire and capacity for obedience. 

Finally. If it be true that the Natural Laws 
must be obeyed as a preliminary condition to hap- 
piness in this world, and if virtue and happiness 
be inseparably allied, the religious instructers of 
mankind may probably discover in the general and 

'* Some observations on Education will be found in the 
Phrenological Journal, vol. iv, p. 407. 



CONCLUSION. 289 

prevalent ignorance of these laws, one reason of 
the limited success which has hitherto attended 
their own efforts at improving the condition of 
mankind ; and they may perhaps perceive it to be 
not inconsistent with their sacred office, to instruct 
men in the natural institutions of the Creator, in 
addition to his revealed will, and to recommend 
obedience to both. They exercise so vast an influ- 
ence over the best members of society, that their 
countenance may hasten, or their opposition retard, 
by a century, the practical adoption of the natural 
laws, as guides of human conduct. 



APPENDIX. 



Note I. 
NATURAL LAWS.— Text, p. 13. 

In the text it is mentioned, that many philosophers 
have treated of the Laws of Nature. The following are 
examples : 

Mr Stewart says, ' To examine the economy of 
nature in the phenomena of the lower animals, and to 
compare their instincts with the physical circumstances 
of their external situation, forms one of the finest spec- 
ulations of Natural History ; and yet it is a speculation 
to which the attention of the natural historian has sel- 
dom been directed. Not only Buffon, but Ray and 
Derham, have passed it over slightly ; nor, indeed, do 
I know of any one who has made it the object of a par- 
ticular consideration but Lord Kames, in a short ap- 
pendix to one of his sketches.' — Elements of the Phi- 
losophy of the Human Mind, vol. iii. p. 368. 

Mr Stewart also uses the following words : — ' Num- 
berless examples show that Nature has done no more 
for man than was necessary for his preservation, leav- 
ing him to make many acquisitions for himself, which 
she has imparted immediately to the brutes. 

'My own idea is, as I have said on a different occa- 
sion, that both instinct and experience are here concern- 
ed, and that the share which belongs to each in pro- 
ducing the result, can be ascertained by an appeal to 
facts alone.' — Vol. iii. ch. 338. 



292 APPENDIX. — NATURAL LAWS. 

Montesquieu introduces his Spirit of Laws by the 
following observations : — ' Laws, in their most gen- 
eral signification, are the necessary relations derived 
from the nature of things. In this sense, all beings 
have their laws ; the Deity has his laws ; the material 
world its laws ; the intelligences superior to man have 
their laws ; the beasts their laws ; man his laws. 

' Those who assert that a blind fatality produced the 
various effects we behold in this world, are guilty of a 
very great absurdity : for can any thing be more absurd 
than to pretend that a blind fatality could be produc- 
tive of intelligent beings ? 

' There is, then, a primitive reason; and laws are 
the relations which subsist between it and different 
beings, and the relations of these beings among them- 
selves. 

' God is related to the universe as creator and pre- 
server ; the laws by which he has created all things are 
those by which he preserves them. He acts according to 
these rules, because he knows them ; he knows them 
because he has made them ; and he made them be- 
cause they are relative to his wisdom and power, &c. 

' Man, as a physical being, is, like other bodies, gov- 
erned by invariable laws? — Spirit of Laws, b. i. c. i. 

Justice Blackstone observes, that 'Law, in its most 
general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of 
action ; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of 
action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irra- 
. tional. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, 
of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and 
of nations. Thus, when the Supreme Being formed the 
universe, and created matter out of nothing, he impress- 
ed certain principles upon that matter, from which it 
can never depart, and without which it would cease to 
be. When he put that matter into motion, he estab- 
lished certain laws of motion, to which all moveable 
bodies must conform.' — ' If we farther advance from 
mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, we 

SHALL FIND THEM STILL GOVERNED BYLAWS; more 

numerous, indeed, but equally fixed and invariable. The 
whole progress of plants, from the seed to the root, and 



APPENDIX. — NATURAL LAWS. 293 

from thence to the seed again ; — the method of animal 
nutrition, digestion, secretion, and all other branches 
of vital economy ;-- are not left to chance, or the will 
of the creature itself, but are performed in a wondrous 
involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid 
down by the great Creator. This, then, is the general 
signification of law, a rule of action dictated by some 
superior being ; and in those creatures that have nei- 
ther power to ihink, nor the will, such laws must be 
invariably obeyed, so long as the creature itself sub- 
sists ; for its existence depends on that obedience.' 
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 
vol i. sect. 2. 

'The word law, 1 says Mr Erskine, 'is frequently 
made use of, both by divines and philosophers, in a large 
acceptation, to express the settled method of God's prov- 
idence, by which he preserves the order of the mate- 
rial world in such a manner, that nothing in it may 
deviate from that uniform course which he has appointed 
for it. And as brute matter is merely passive, without 
the least degree of choice upon its part, these laws are 
inviolably observed in the material creation, every 
part of which continues to act, immutably, according to 
the rules that were from the beginning prescribed to it by 
infinite wisdom. Thus philosophers have given the 
appellation of law to that motion which incessantly 
pervades and agitates the universe, and is ever chang- 
ing the form and substance of things, dissolving some, 
and raising others, as from their ashes, to fill up the 
void : Yet so, that amidst all the fluctuations by which 
particular things are affected, the universe is still pre- 
served without diminution. Thus also they speak of 
the laws of fluids, of gravitation, &c. and the word is 
used, in this sense, in several passages of the sacred wri- 
tings : in the book of Job, and in Proverbs viii. 29, 
where God is said to have given his law to the seas 
that they should not pass his commandment.' — Ers- 
Tiine's Institutes of the Laws of Scotland, book i. tit. i. 
sect. I. 

Discussions about the Laws of Nature, rather than 
inquiries into them, were common in France, during 



294 APPENDIX.— NATURAL LAWS. 

the Revolution and, having become associated, in im- 
agination, with the crimes and horrors of that period, 
they continue to be regarded, by some individuals, as 
inconsistent with religion and morality. A coinci- 
dence between the views maintained in the preceding 
Essay, and a passage in Volney, has been pointed out 
to me as an objection to the whole doctrine. Volney's 
words are the following : — ' It is a law of nature, that 
water flows from an upper to a lower situation ; that it 
seeks its level ; that it is heavier than air ; that all 
bodies tend towards the earth ; that flame rises towards 
the sky ; that it destroys the organization of vegeta- 
bles and animals ; that air is essential to the life of 
certain'animals ; that, in certain cases, water suffocates 
and kills them; that certain juices of plants, and cer- 
tain minerals, attack their organs, and destroy their 
life ; — and the same of a variety of facts. 

' Now, since these facts, and many similar ones, are 
constant, regular, and immutable, they become so many 
real and positive commands, to which man is bound to 
conform, under the express penalty of punishment at- 
tached to their infraction, or wellbeing connected with 
their observance. So that if a man were to pretend 
to see clearly in the dark, or is regardless of the pro- 
gress of the seasons, or the action of the elements ; if 
he pretends to exist under water, without drowning ; 
to handle fire without burning himself; to deprive him- 
self of air without suffocating ; or to drink poison with- 
out destroying himself; he receives, for each infraction 
of the law of nature, a corporal punishment proportion- 
ed to his transgression. If, on the contrary, he ob- 
serves these laws, and founds his practice on the pre- 
cise and regular relation which they bear to him, he 
preserved his existence, and renders it as happy as it 
is capable of being rendered ; and since all these laws, 
considered in relation to the human species, have in 
view only one common end, that of their preservation 
and their happiness ; whence it has been agreed to as- 
semble together the different ideas, and express them 
by a single word, and call them collectively by the 
name of the " Law of Nature" ' — Volney's Law of 
Wature, 3d edit. pp. 21, 24. 



APPENDIX. -NATURAL LAW. 295 

I feel no embarrassment by this coincidence ; but 
remark, first, That various authors, quoted in the text 
and in this note, advocated the importance of the laws 
of nature, long before the French Revolution was 
heard of; secondly, That the existence of the laws of 
nature is as obvious to the understanding, as the exis- 
tence of the external world, and of the human mind 
and body themselves to the senses ; thirdly, That these 
laws, being inherent in creation, must have proceeded 
from the Deity ; fourthly, That if the Deity is power- 
ful, just, and benevolent, they must harmonize with the 
constitution of man; and, lastly, That if the laws of 
nature have been instituted by the Deity, and been 
framed in wise, benevolent, and just relationship to the 
human constitution, they must at all times form the 
highest and most important subjects of human investi- 
gation, and remain altogether unaffected by the errors, 
follies, and crimes of those who endeavor to expound 
them; just as religion continues holy, venerable, and 
uncontaminated, notwithstanding of the hypocrisy, 
wickedness, and inconsistency of individuals profess- 
ing themselves her interpreters and friends. 

That the views of the natural laws themselves, advo- 
cated in this Essay, are diametrically opposite to the 
practical conduct of the French revolutionary ruffians, 
requires do demonstration. My fundamental principle 
is, that man can enjoy happiness on earth only by plac- 
ing his habitual conduct under the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments, and intellect, and that this is the law 
of his nature. No doctrine can be more opposed than 
this to fraud, robbery, blasphemy, and murder. 

It may be urged, that all past speculations about the 
laws of nature have proved more imposing than useful ; 
and that while the laws themselves afford materials for 
elevated declamation on the part, of philosophers, they 
form no secure guides even to the learned, and much 
less to the illiterate, in practical conduct. In answer, 
I would respectfully repeat what has frequently been 
urged in the text, that, before we can discover the 
laws of nature, applicable to man, we must know, first, 
The constitution of man himself; secondly, The con- 



296 APPENDIX. -ORGANIC LAWS. 

stitution of external nature ; and, thirdly, We must 
compare the two. But, previous to the discovery of 
Prhenology, the mental constitution of man was a mat- 
ter of vague conjecture, and endless debate ; and the 
connexion between his mental powers and his organ- 
ized system, was involved in the deepest obscurity. 
The brain, the most important organ of the body, had 
no ascertained functions. Before the introduction of 
this science, therefore, men were rather impressed 
with the unspeakable importance of a knowledge of 
the laws of nature, than acquainted with the laws 
themselves ; and even the knowledge of the external 
world actually possessed, could not, in many instances, 
be rendered available, on account of its relationship to 
the qualities of man being unascertained, and unas- 
certainable, so long as these qualities themselves were 
unknown. 



Note II. 



ORGANIC LAWS.— Text, p. 111. 



It is a very common error, not only among philoso- 
phers, but among practical men, to imagine that the 
feelings of the mind are communicated to it through 
the medium of the intellect ; and, in particular, that if 
no indelicate objects reach the eyes, or expressions 
penetrate the ears, perfect purity will necessarily reign 
within the soul ; and, carrying this mistake into prac- 
tice, they are prone to object to all discussion of the 
subjects treated of under the ' Organic Laws,' in works 
designed for general use. But their principle of reas- 
oning is fallacious, and the practical result has been 
highly detrimental to society. The feelings have ex- 
istence and activity distinct from the intellect ; they 



APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 297 

spur it on to obtain their own gratification ; and it may 
become either their slave or guide, according as it is 
enlightened concerning their constitution, and objects, 
and the laws of nature to which they are subjected. 
The most profound philosophers have inculcated this 
doctrine: and, by phrenological observation, it is dem- 
onstrably established. The organs of the feelings are 
distinct from those of the intellectual faculties ; they 
are larger ; and, as each faculty, ceteris paribus, acts 
with a power proportionate to the size of its organ, the 
feelings are obviously the active or impelling powers. 
The cerebellum, or organ ot Amativeness, is the larg- 
est of the whole mental organs ; and, being endowed 
with natural activity, it fills the mind spontaneously 
with emotions and suggestions which may be directed, 
controlled, and resisted, in outward manifestation, by 
intellect and moral sentiment, but which cannot be pre- 
vented from arising, nor eradicated after they exist. 
The whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this, 
Whether it is most beneficial to enlighten and direct 
that feeling, or (under the influence of an error in phi- 
losophy, and false delicacy founded on it,) to permit it 
to riot in all the fierceness of a blind animal instinct, 
withdrawn from the eye of reason, but not thereby de- 
prived of its vehemence and importunity. The former 
course appears to me to be the only one consistent 
withureason and morality ; and I have adopted it in re- 
liance on the good sense of my readers, that they will 
at once discriminate between practical instruction 
concerning this feeling, addressed to the intellect, and 
lascivious representations addressed to the mere pro- 
pensity itself; with the latter of which the enemies of 
all improvement may attempt to confound my observa- 
tions. Every function of the mind and body is insti- 
tuted by the Creator; all may be abused; and it is 
impossible regularly to avoid abuse of them, except by 
being instructed in their nature, objects, and relations. 
This instruction ought to be addressed exclusively to 
the intellect ; and, when it is so, it is science of the 
most beneficial description. The propriety, nay ne- 
cessity, of acting on this principle, becomes more and 



298 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

more apparent, when it is considered that the discus- 
sions of the text suggest only intellectual ideas to in- 
dividuals in whom the feeling in question is naturally 
weak, and that such minds perceive no indelicacy in 
knowledge which is calculated to be useful ; while, on 
the other hand, persons in whom the feeling is natural- 
ly strong, are precisely those who stand in need of 
direction, and to whom, of all others, instruction is the 
most necessary. 

Fortified by these observations, I venture to record 
some additional facts communicated by persons on 
whose accuracy reliance may be placed. 

A gentleman, who has paid much attention to the 
rearing of horses, informed me, that the male race- 
horse, when excited, but not exhausted, by running, has 
been found by experience, to be in the most favora- 
ble condition for transmitting swiftness and vivacity to 
his offspring. Another gentleman stated, that he was 
himself present when the pale gray color of a male 
horse was objected to ; that the groom thereupon pre- 
sented before the eyes of the male another female 
from the stable, of a very particular, but pleasing, va- 
riety of colors, asserting that the latter would deter- 
mine the complexion of the offspring ; and that in point 
of fact it did so. The experiment was tried in the case 
of a second female, and the result was so completely 
the same, that the two young horses, in point of color, 
could scarcely be distinguished, although their spots 
were extremely uncommon. The account of Laban 
and the peeled rods laid before the cattle to produce 
spotted calves, is an example of the same kind. 

Portal mentions the hereditary descent of blind- 
ness and deafness. His words are: 'Mor<?agni has 
seen three sisters dumb " aborigine." Other authors 
also cite examples, and I have seen like cases myself.' 
In a note, he adds, ' I have seen three children out of 
four of the same family blind from birth by amaurosis, 
or gutta serena. — Portal, Memoires sur Plusieurs Mal- 
adies, tome iii. p. 193. Paris, 1808. 

In the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No, I., there 
are several valuable articles illustrative of the Organic 



APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 299 

Laws in the inferior animals. I select the following 
examples : 

1 Every one knows that the hen of any bird will lay 
eggs although no male be permitted to come near her ; 
and that those eggs are only wanting in the vital prin- 
ciple which the impregnation of the male conveys to 
them. Here, then, we see the female able to make an 
egg, with yolk and white, shell and every part, just as 
it ought to be, so that we might, at the first glance, 
suppose that here, at all events, the female has the 
greatest influence. But see the change which the 
male produces. Put a Bantam cock to a large sized 
hen and she will instantly lay a small egg; the chick 
will be short, in the leg, have feathers to the foot, and 
put on the appearance of the cock ; so that it is a fre- 
quent complaint where Bantams are kept, that they 
make the hens lay small eggs, and spoil the breed. 
Reverse the case ; put a large dunghill cock to Ban- 
tam hens, and instantly they will lay larger eggs, and 
the chicks will be good-sized birds, and the Bantam 
will have nearly disappeared. Here, then, are a num- 
ber of facts known to every one, or at least open to be 
known by every one, clearly proving the influence of 
the male in some animals ; and as I hold it to be an axiom 
that nature never acts by contraries, never outrages 
the law clearly fixed in one species, by adopting the 
opposite course in another, — therefore, as in the case 
of an equilateral triangle on the length of one side be- 
ing given we can with certainty demonstrate that of 
the remaining ; so, having found these laws to exist 
in one race of animals, we are entitled to assume that 
every species is subjected to the self same rules, — the 
whole bearing, in fact, the same relation to each other 
as the radii of a circle.' 

« A method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex, at 
the option of the Proprietor, in the Breeding of hive 
Stock. — Extracted from the Quarterly Journal of 
Agriculture, No. I. p. 63. 

In the Annales de l'Agriculture Francais, vols. 37 



300 



APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS 



and 38, some very interesting experiments are record 
ed, -which have lately been made in France, on the 
Breeding of Live Stock. M. Charles Girou de Buza- 
reingues proposed, at a meeting of the Agricultural 
Society of Severac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to divide 
a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater 
number of males or females, at the choice of the pro- 
prietor, should be produced from each of them. Two 
of the members of the Society offered their flocks to 
become the subjects of his experiments, and the results 
have now been communicated, which are in accordance 
with the author's expectations. 

'The first experiment was conducted in the follow- 
ing manner: He recommended very young rams to be 
put to the flock of ewes, from which the proprietor 
wished the greater number of females in their offspring ; 
and also, that, during the season when the rams were 
with the ewes, they should have more abundant pas- 
ture than the other; while, to the flock from which the 
proprietor wished to obtain male lambs chiefly tfm re- 
commended him to put strong and vigorous rarftsVour 
or five years old. The following tabular view comrains 
the result of this experiment. 



Flock, for Female Lambs. 


Flock for Male Lambs. 


Age of the 
Mothers. 


Sex of the 
Lambs. 


Age of the 
Mothers. 


Sex of the 
Lambs. 


Males. Females. 
Two years, . . . J4 26 
Three years, . . 16 29 
Four years, 5 21 

Total, .... 35 76 
Five years and older, 18 8 

Total, .... 53 84 

N. B. — There were three twin 
births in this flock. Two rams 
served it, one fifteen months, the 
other nearly two years old. 


Males. Females. 
Two years, . . 7 3 
Three years, . . 15 14 
Four years, . . 33 14 

Total, .... 55 31 
Five years and older, 25 24 

Total, ... 80 55 

N. B.— There were no twin births 
in this flock. Two strong rams, 
one four, the other five years old, 
served it. 



APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 30L 

* The second experiment is thus related by the au- 
thor : 

'During the summer of 1826, M. Cournuejouls, kept 
upon a very dry pasture, belonging to the village of 
Bez, a flock of 106 ewes, of which 84 belonged to him- 
self, and 22 to his shepherds. Towards the end of 
October, he divided his flock into two sections, of 42 
heads each, the one composed of the strongest ewes, 
from four to five years old ; the other of the weakest 
beasts under four or above five years old. The first 
■was destined to produce a greater number of females 
than the second. After it was marked with pitch in 
my presence, it was taken to much better pasture be- 
hind Panouse, where it was delivered to four male 
lambs, about six months old, and of good promise. The 
second remained upon the pasture of Bez, and was 
served by two strong rams, more than three years old. 

* The ewes belonging to the shepherds, which I 
shall consider as forming a third section, and which 
are in general stronger and better fed than those of 
the master, because their owners are not always par- 
ticular in preventing them from trespassing on the 
cultivated lands, which are not inclosed, were mix- 
ed with those of the second flock. The result was, 
that the 

Males. Females. 

First Section gave, 15 25 

The Second, . . . .26 14 

The Third. 10 12 

In the First Section there were 

Two Twin Births, • 4 

In the Second and third there 

were also Two, 3 1 

" Besides these very decisive experiments, M. Girou 
relates some others, made with horses and cattle, in 
which his success in producing a greater number of 
one sex rather than another also appears. The gene- 
ral law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems to be, 
that, when animals are in good condition, plentifully 
supplied with food, and kept from breeding as fast as 
they might do, they are most likely to produce females. 
19 



302 APPENDIX.— DEATH. 

Or, in other words, when a race of animals is in cir- 
cumstances favorable for its increase, nature produces 
the greatest number of that sex which, in animals that 
do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the numbers 
of the race : But, if they are in a bad climate, or on 
stinted pasture, or, if they have already given birth to 
a numerous offspring, then nature, setting limits to the 
increase of the race, produces more males than females. 
Yet, perhaps, it may be premature to attempt to deduce 
any law from experiments which have not yet been 
sufficiently extended. M. Girou is disposed to ascribe 
much of the effect to the age of the ram, independent 
of the condition of the ewe." 



Note III. 
DEATH.— Text, p. 184. 

The decreasing Mortality of England is strikingly 
supported by the following extract from the Scotsman 
of 16th April, 1828. It is well known that this paper 
is edited by Mr Charles Maclaren, a gentleman 
whose extensive information, and scrupulous regard to 
accuracy and truth, stamp the highest value on his 
statements of fact: and whose profound and compre- 
hensive intellect warrants a well-grounded reliance on 
his philosophical conclusions. 

" Diminished Mortality in England. The di- 
minution of the annual mortality in England amidst an 
alleged increase of crime, misery, and pauperism, is an 
extraordinary and startling fact, which merits a more 
careful investigation than it has received. We have 
not time 40 go deeply into the subject: but we shall 
offer a remark or two on the question, how the appa- 
rent annual mortality is affected by the introduction of 
the cow-pox, and the stationary or progressive state ^f 
the population. In 1780, according to Mr Rickman, 
the annual deaths were 1 in 40, or one-fortieth part of 
the population died every year ; in 1821, the proportion 



APPENDIX. — DEATH. 303 

was 1 in 58. It follows, that, out of any given number 
of persons, 1000 or 10,000, scarcely more than two 
deaths take place now for three that took place in 
1780, or the mortality has diminished 45 per cent. The 
parochial registers of burials in England, from which 
this statement is derived, are known to be incorrect, 
but as they continue to be kept without alteration in 
the same way, the errors of one year, are justly con- 
ceived to balance those of another, and they thus 
afford comparative results upon which considerable re- 
liance may be placed. 

" A community is made up of persons of many vari- 
ous ages, among whom the law of mortality is very 
different. Thus, according to the Swedish tables, the 
deaths among children from the moment of birth up to 
10 years of age, are 1 in 22 per annum ; from 10 to 
20, the deaths are only 1 in 185. Among the old 
again, mortality is of course great. From 70 to 80, the 
deaths are 1 in 9 ; from 80 to 90, they are 1 in 4. 
Now, a community like that of New York or Ohio, 
where marriages are made early and the births are 
numerous, necessarily contains a large proportion of 
young persons, among whom the proportional mortality 
is low, and a small proportion of the old who die off 
rapidly. A community in which the births are nume- 
rous, is like a regiment receiving a vast number of 
young and healthy recruits, and in which, of course, as 
a whole, the annual deaths will be few compared with 
those in another regiment chiefly filled with veterans, 
though among the persons at any particular age, such 
as 20, 40, or 50, the mortality will be as great in the 
one regiment as the other. It may thus happen, that 
the annual mortality among 1000 persons in Ohio, 
may be considerably less than in France, while the 
Expectation of Life, or the chance which an individual 
has to reach to a certain age, may be no greater in the 
former country than in the latter ; and hence we see 
that a diminution in the rate of mortality is not a cer- 
tMn proof of an increase in the value of life, or an im- 
provement in the condition of the people. 



304 APPENDIX.— DEATH. 

'But the effect produced by an increased number of 
births is less than might he imagined, owing to the 
very great mortality among infants in the first year of 
their age. Not having time for the calculations nec- 
essary to get at the precise result, which are pretty 
complex, we avail ourselves of some statements given 
by Mr Milne in his work on Annuities. Taking the 
Swedish tables as a basis, and supposing the law of 
mortality to remain the same for each period of life, he 
has compared the proportional number of deaths in 
a population which is stationary, and in one which 
increases 15 per cent, in 20 years. The result is, 
that when the mortality in the stationary society is 
one in 36.13, that in the progressive society is one in 
37.33, a difference equal to 3£ per cent. Now, the 
population of England and Wales increased 34.3 per 
cent, in the 20 years ending in 1821,but in the interval 
from 1811 to 1821, the rate was equivalent to 39£ per 
cent, upon 20 years ; and the apparent diminution 
of mortality arising from this circumstance must of 
course have been about 8h per cent. We are assum- 
ing, however, that the population was absolutely sta- 
tionary at 180, which was not the case. According to 
Mr Milne (p. 437,)" the average annual increase in the 
five years ending 1784, was 1 in 155 ; in the ten years 
ending 1821, according to the census, it was 1 in 60. 
Deducting, then, the proportional part corresponding 
to the former, which is 3^, there remains 5|. If Mr 
Milne's tables, therefore, are correct, we may infer 
that the progressive state of the population causes a dim- 
inution of 5% per cent, in the annual mortality — a 
diminution which is only apparent, because it arises 
entirely from the great proportion of births, and is not 
accompanied with any real increase in the value of hu- 
man life. 

' A much greater change — not apparent but real — 
was produced by the introduction of the vaccination in 
1798. It was computed, that, in 1795, when the popu- 
lation of the British Isles was 15,000,000, the deaths 
produced by the small-pox amounted to 36,000, or 
nearly 11 per cent, of the whole annual mortality. 



APPENDIX; — DEATH. 305 

(See article Vaccination in the Supplement to Ency- 
clopedia Britannica, p. 713.) Now, since not more 
than one case in 330 terminates fatally under the cow- 
pox system, either directly by the primary infection, 
or from the other disease supervening: the whole of 
the young persons destroyed by the small-pox might 
be considered as saved were vaccination universal, and 
always properly performed. This is not precisely the 
case, but one or one and a-half per cent, will cover 
the deficiencies ; and we may therefore conclude, that 
vaccination has diminished the annual mortality fully 
nine per cent. After we had arrived at this conclu- 
sion by the process described, we found it confirmed by 
the authority of Mr Milne, who estimates in a note to 
one of his tables, that the mortality of 1 in 40 would 
be diminished to 1 in 43 — 5, by exterminating the 
small- pox. Now, this is almost percisely 9 per cent. 

'We stated, that the diminution of the annual mor- 
tality between 1780 and 1821 was 45 per cent., accord- 
ing to Mr Rickman. If we deduct from this 9 per 
cent, for the effect of vaccination, and 5 per cent, as 
only apparent, resulting from the increasing proportion 
of births — 31 per cent, remains, which we apprehend, 
can only he accounted for by an improvement in the hab- 
its, morals, and physical condition of the people. Inde- 
pendently, then, of the two causes alluded to, the value 
of human life since 1780, has increased in a ratio which 
would diminish the annual mortality from 1 in 40 to 1 in 
52*, — a fact which is indisputably of great importance, 
and worth volumes of declamation in illustrating the 
true situation of the laboring classes. We have 
founded our conclusion on data derived entirely from 
English returns ; but there is no doubt that it applies 
equally to Scotland. It is consoling to find, from this 
very unexceptionable species of evidence, that though 
there is much privation and suffering in the country, 
the situation of the people has been, on the whole, pro- 
gressively improving during the last forty years. But 
how much greater would the advance have been, had 
they been less taxed, and better treated ? and how 
much room is there still for future melioration, by 



306 APPENDIX.— DEATH. 

spreading instruction, amending our laws, lessening 
the temptations to crime, and improving the means of 
correction and reform ? In the mean time, it ought to 
be some encouragement to philanthropy to learn, that 
it has not to struggle against invincible obstacles, and 
that even Avhen the prospect was least cheering to the 
eye, its efforts were silently benefiting society.' 

It has been mentioned to me, that the late Dr Mon- 
ro, in his anatomical lectures, stated, that, as far as he 
could observe, the human body, as a machine, was per- 
fect, — that it bore within itself no marks by which we 
couid possibly predicate its decay, — that it was ap- 
parently calculated to go on forever, — and that we 
learned only by experience that it would not do so ; 
and some persons have conceived this to be an author- 
ity against the doctrine maintained in Chap. III. Sect. 2. 
that death is apparently inherent in organization. -In 
answer, I beg to observe, that if we were to look at 
the sun only for one moment of time, say at noon, no cir- 
cumstance, in its appearance, would indicate that it 
had ever risen, or that it would ever set ; but, if we 
had traced its progress from the horizon to the meridi- 
an, and down again till the long shadows of evening 
prevailed, we should have ample grounds for inferring, 
that, if the same causes that had produced these chan- 
ges continued to operate, it would undoubtedly at 
length disappear. In the same way, if we were to con- 
fine our observations on the human body to a mere 
point of time, it is certain that, from the appearances of 
that moment, we could not infer that it had grown up, 
by gradual increase, or that it would decay ; but this 
is the case only, because our faculties are not fitted to 
penetrate into the essential nature and dependencies 
of things. Any man, who had seen the body decrease 
in old age, could, without hesitation, predicate, that, if 
the same causes which had produced that effect went 
on operating, dissolution would at last inevitably oc- 
cur; and if his Causality were well developed, he 
would not hesitate to say that a cause of the decrease 
and dissolution must exist, although he could not tell 
by examining the body what it was. By analysing 



APPENDIX. -MORAL LAWS. 307 

alcohol, no person could predicate, independently of 
experience, that it would produce intoxication ; and, 
nevertheless, there must be a cause in the constitution 
of the alcohol, in that of the body, and in the relationship 
between them, why it produces this effect. The no- 
tion, therefore, of Dr Monro, does not prove that death 
is not an essential law of organization, but only that 
the human faculties are not able, by dissection, to dis- 
cover that the cause of it is inherent in the bodily con- 
stitution itself. It does not follow, however, that this 
inference may not be legitimately drawn from phe- 
nomena collected from the whole period of corporeal 
existence. 



Note IV. 

INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAWS. — Text, p. 226. 

The deterioration of the operative classes of Britain 
which I attribute to excessive labor, joined with great 
alternations of high and low wages, and occasionally 
with absolute idleness and want, is illustrated by the 
following extracts : — 

1 Unemployed Weavers in Lanarkshire. On 
Saturday last, a meeting of weavers' delegates from 
the various districts in this neighborhood, was held in 
the usual place. The object of the meeting was to re- 
ceive from the several districts an account of the 
number of weavers out of employment, which state- 
ment it was intended to lay before the Lord Provost 
and Magistrates. The following are the returns giv- 
en i n : — Anderston contains 708 looms, of which 386 
are idle. Baillieston-toll contains 150 looms, of these 
98 are empty. The district of north Bridgeton con- 
tains, in whole, between 400 and 500 looms. The 
returns are only from about one half of this district, 



308 APPENDIX.— MORAL LAWS. 

which contains 150 empty looms. For the centre and 
south districts of Bridgeton, the accounts are incom- 
plete. In the former 180, and in the latter 60, empty 
looms were taken up. In Charleston there are 132 
idle. In Cowcaddens, of 300 looms, 120 are idle. In 
Clyde, Bell, and Tobago Streets, of about 500 looms, 
there are 74 idle ; and 100 working webs which cannot 
average 8d. a-day. In Drygate, there are 105 idle ; in 
Drygate-toll 73 ; in Duke Street 18. In Gorbals, con- 
taining 365 looms, there are 223 idle. In Havannah, 
out of 130 looms, there are 48 idle. In the district of 
Keppoch-hill, of 70 weavers, there are 20 idle. The 
district of King Street is divided into ten wards ; re- 
turns are only given in from four, which contain 70 
empty looms. In Pollockshaws, containing about 800 
looms, there are 216 idle. In Rutherglen there are 
167 idle. In Springbank, of 141 weavers, there are 58 
unemployed ; and in Strathbungo, containing 104 
looms, there are 28 idle, 25 of whom are married men. 
Parkhead, Camlachie and some other extensive dis- 
tricts, have not yet given in their returns. The dele- 
gates, before separating, appointed a general meeting 
to be held in the Green this day, to decide upon an 
address to the Magistrates, requesting them to endeav- 
or to procure employment for the idle hands.' — Glas- 
gow Chronicle, Tuesday, March, 1826. 

' Sheep Trade. The late commercial crisis, like a 
death blow, has paralyzed the whole activity of the 
country, and left scarcely a single branch of its trade 
and industry unscathed. It was at first fondly hoped 
that the storm would pass without such remote districts 
as our own having much reason to complain of.its vis- 
itation ; but nothing, as the present instance proves, 
is more certain than that the distresses of the commer- 
cial, must also in all cases be more or less felt by the 
agricultural classes of the community. The demand 
for wool has now so far ceased as to operate most injuri- 
ously upon the price of sheep, which cannot presently 
be sold but at a very considerable loss to the farmer. 
In the latter part, or " back season," as it is called, of 



APPENDIX. — MORAL LAWS. 309 

1824, black-faced ewes — their example applies equally 
to the other kinds — were bought in for wintering at 
from 8s. to 12s. a-head ; and, in the spring of 1825, im- 
mediately before lambing-time, these were disposed of 
in the English markets at so great a profit, that every 
farmer who could at all enter into the speculation, 
bought up at the end of the ensuing harvest, as much 
of that description of stock as his quantity of keep 
would reasonably permit. The number of sheep over 
those of the preceding year which were bought up 
for this purpose, may be judged of from the fact, that 
the highest inlay price of 1824 was the lowest of 1825 

— the rate for the latter year being, for black-faced 
ewes, from 12s. to 18s. But the present crisis came, 

— the manufacturers of England were obliged to re- 
trench at meals in the article of mutton, — the demand 
on the part of the butchers consequently ceased ; and 
now those sheep which were purchased at so extrava- 
gant a rate, are necessarily sold, upon an average, at 
a loss of 2s. a-head upon the inlay price, without at 
all estimating the expense of keep. We know one 
extensive moorland farmer, who calculates upon loos- 
ing two hundred pounds in the present year from this 
cause alone, besides a vast loss which he must also 
sustain in consequence of the reduced price of wool. 
This cessation of demand in England was unfortunate- 
ly not fully ascertained until several droves of lambing 
ewes had been despatched to that quarter ; and the em- 
barrassment of those who are placed in this predica- 
ment is the more afflicting, as their knowledge has 
been acquired too late to allow their availing them- 
selves of the house of Muir, and other northern mar- 
kets.' — Dumfries Courier, March, 1826. 

'Details upon the Subject of Weavers' Wages, from 
the last Report of Emigration extracted from the Scots- 
man Newspaper, of 10th November, 1827. 

\ Joseph Foster, a weaver, and one of the deputies 
of an emigration society in Glasgow, states that the 
labor is all paid by the piece ; the hours of working 



310 APPENDIX. — MORAL LAWS. 

are various, sometimes eighteen or nineteen out of 
twentyfour, and even all night once or twice a-week ; 
and that the wages made by such labor, after deduct- 
ing the necessary expenses, will not amount to more than 
from 4s. Cd. to 7s. per week, some kinds of work pay- 
ing better than others. When he commenced work- 
ing as a weaver, from 1800 to 1805, the same amount 
of labor that now yields 4s 6d. or 5s. would have yield- 
ed 20s. There are about 11,000 hand-looms going in 
Glasgow and its suburbs, some of which are worked 
by boys and girls, and he estimates the average net 
earnings of each hand-weaver at 5s. 6d. The princi- 
pal subsistence of the weavers is oatmeal and potatoes, 
with occasionally some salt herring. 

' Major Thomas Moodie, who had made careful in- 
quiries into the state of the poor at Manchester, states, 
that the calico and other light plain work at Bolton and 
Blackburn, yields the weaver from 4s. to 5s. per week, 
by fourteen hours of daily labor. In the power-loom 
work, one man attends two looms, and earns from 7s. 6d. 
to 14s. per. week, according to the fineness of the work. 
He understood that during the last ten years, weavers' 
wages had fallen on an average about 15s. per week. 

" jy[ r Thomas Hunton, manufacturer, Carlisle, states , 
that there are in Carlisle and, its neighborhood about 
5500 families, or from 18,000 to 20,000 persons depen- 
dent on weaving. They are all hand-weavers, and are 
now in a very depressed state, in consequence of the 
increase of power-loom and factory weaving * in Man- 
chester and elsewhere. Taking fifteen of his men, he 
finds that five of them, who are employed on the best 
work, had earned 5s. 6d. per week for the preceding 
month, deducting the necessary expenses of loom-rent, 
candles, tackling, &c ; the next five, who are upon 
work of the second quality, earned 3s. lid. ; and the 

* In what is called factory-weaving, an improved species 
of hand-loom is employed, in which the dressing and prepa- 
ration of the web is effected by machinery, and the weaver 
merely sits and drives the shuttle. 



APPENDIX. -MORAL LAWS. 311 

third five earned 3s. 7£d. per week. They work from 
fourteen to sixteen hours a-day, and live chiefly on 
potatoes, butter-milk, and herrings. 

" Mr W. H. Hyett, Secretary to the Charity Com- 
mittee in London, gives a detailed statement, to show, 
that, in the Hundred of Blackburn, comprising a popu- 
lation of 150,000 persons, 90,000 were out of employ- 
ment in 1826 ! In April last, when he gave his 
evidence before the Committee, these persons had 
generally found work again, but at very low wages. 
They were laboring from twelve to fourteen hours 
a-day, and gaining from 4s. to 5s. 6d. per week." 

* " Poor Rates, 28th March, 1828. — A document of 
great importance, though of a description by no means 
cheering, has been presented to the House of Com- 
mons, — the annual Abstract of the Returns of the 
Poor Rates levied and expended, with comparisons, 
showing their increase or diminution. The accounts 
show the expenditure of the year ending 25th March, 
1827, compared with the previous year. The total 
sum levied in all the counties of England and Wales, 
in the last year, was £7,489,694 ; the sum expended 
for the relief of the poor, £6,179,877. The increase 
in that year throughout the whole of England and 
Wales, is nine per cent. ; nine per cent, in one year on 
the whole sum expended. It is true that this is in 
part to be accounted for by the temporary distress of 
the manufacturing districts. (In Lancaster, the in- 
crease was lortyseven, in the West Riding of York, 
thirty one per cent.) ; but we are sorry to find, that 
in only three counties of England was there any the 
most trifling diminution. In Berks two, Hampshire 
five, Suffolk four per cent. The poor rates in Eng- 
land, therefore, amount to nearly double the whole 
landed rental of Scotland." 



312 APPENDIX. — MORAL LAWS. 



" Extract from the Lord-Advocate- s Speech in the House 
of Commons, 11th March, 1828, on the additional 
Circuit Court of Glasgow. 

"The Lord-Advocate, in rising to move for leave to 
bring in a bill to 'authorize an additional Court of 
Justiciary to be held at Glasgow, and to facilitate cri- 
minal trial in Scotland,' said he did not anticipate any 
opposition to the motion. A great deal had been said 
of the progress of crime in this country, but he was 
sorry to say crime in Scotland had kept pace with that 
increase. A return had been made of the number of crim- 
inal commitments in each year, so far back as the year 
1805. In that year the number of criminal commit- 
ments for all Scotland amounted only to 85. In 1809 
it had risen to between 200 and 300; in 1839-20, it 
had increased to 400 ; and by the last return, it ap- 
peared, that, in 1827, 661 persons had been committed 
for trial. He was inclined to think, that the great in- 
crease of crime, particularly in the west of Scotland, 
was attributable, in no small degree, to the number of 
Irish who daily and weekly arrived there. He did not 
mean to say that the Irish themselves were in the habit 
of committing more crime than their neighbors ; but 
he was of opinion, that their numbers tended to reduce 
the price of labor, and that an increase of crime was 
the consequence. Another cause was the great dis- 
regard manifested by parents for the moral education 
of their children. Formerly, the people of Scotland 
were remarkable for the paternal care which they took 
of their offspring. That had ceased in many instances 
to be the case. Not only were parents found who did 
not pay attention to the welfare of their children, but 
who were actually parties to their criminal pursuits, 
and participated in the fruits of their unlawful pro- 
ceedings. When crime was thus on the increase, it 
was necessary to take measures for its speedy punish- 
ment. The great city of Glasgow, which contained 
150,000 inhabitants, and to which his proposed measure 



APPENDIX. -MORAL LA WS. 313 

was meant chiefly to apply, stood greatly in need of 
some additional jurisdiction. This would appear evi- 
dent, when it was considered that the court which met 
there for the trial of capital offences, had also to act in 
the districts of Renfrew, Lanark, and Dunbarton. In 
1812, the whole number of criminals tried in Glasgow 
was only 31 ; in 1820, it was 83 ; in 1823, it was°85 ; 
and in 1827,211. — The learned lord concluded by 
moving for leave to bring in a bill to authorize an ad- 
ditional circuit court of justiciary to be held at Glas- 
gow, and to facilitate criminal trial in Scotland." 



THE END. 



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